California - state high court denies tobacco companies appeal..

January 14, 2010 - The state Supreme Court on Wednesday, January 13th denied tobacco companies' appeals of a San Francisco jury's award of $2.85 million in damages to the family of a woman who died of lung cancer after smoking cigarettes for 26 years. Leslie Whiteley of Ojai (Ventura County) sued Philip Morris and R.J. Reynolds before her death in 2000 at age 40.

She testified that she started smoking at 13, using her lunch money to buy cigarettes, and paid little attention to the warning labels because tobacco companies promoted the benefits of smoking and the government allowed the sales. She smoked two packs a day until she was diagnosed with cancer in 1998.

A jury awarded Whiteley and her husband $1.7 million in compensation and $20 million in punitive damages four months before she died. It was the nation's first verdict in favor of a smoker who took up the habit after 1965, when the government first required warnings on cigarette packages.

A state appeals court granted the companies a new trial in 2004, citing a law that immunized them from damages for harm caused by their products between 1988 and 1998. A second jury awarded Whiteley's family $2.85 million in 2007. The companies appealed, arguing that they weren't responsible for statements by industry groups like the Tobacco Institute in the 1970s and 1980s that scientific research was still inconclusive about the health risks of smoking.

A state appeals court upheld the verdict in October, saying Philip Morris and R.J. Reynolds were among a small group of companies that funded and bankrolled the industry groups and influenced their research. The companies never contradicted the trade groups' "false or misleading statements" and engaged in their own "campaign of deception" during the same period to keep smokers addicted, the court said.

The state's high court unanimously denied review of the companies' appeal Wednesday, January 13th.

More background - the case of Whiteley vs. R.J. Reynolds.

Reference: State high court denies tobacco company appeals, Bob Egelko (begelko@sfchronicle.com), Article appeared on page C-3 of the San Francisco Chronicle, 1/14/2010.

Leslie Whiteley, shown in 1975, started smoking as a teen. She died in 2000 at age 40.
Photo: Associated Press