Tobacco Firms Ordered to Pay Family of Calif. Smoking Victim

Philip Morris and R.J. Reynolds must pay $2.85 million in damages to the family of a California woman who died of lung cancer at age 40 after smoking for 26 years, the state’s high court has ruled.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported Jan. 14 that the California Supreme Court unanimously rejected an appeal filed by the tobacco companies and upheld a San Francisco jury’s award in the case. Ojai resident Leslie Whiteley sued the companies after she developed lung cancer at age 38; she had been smoking two packs a day of cigarettes and started smoking at age 13.

Whiteley, who died in 2000, said that the warning labels on cigarette packs were outweighed by tobacco company advertising that emphasized the “benefits” of smoking, and the fact that the government allowed cigarettes to be sold legally.

The verdict was the first in favor of a plaintiff who started smoking after the government required warning labels on cigarettes in 1965. R.J. Reynolds and Philip Morris argued that they were not responsible for statements in the 1970s from the Tobacco Institute — which claimed that the evidence about the health risks of smoking was inconclusive — but California courts ruled that the institute was funded and supported by these and other major tobacco firms.