Mistrial Granted in Second-Hand Smoke Trial

Cigarette makers on Monday won a mistrial in a Florida lawsuit brought by a former flight attendant who alleges that second-hand smoke caused her cancer.

A judge in Miami halted the trial of Gail Routh’s lawsuit after two jurors bowed out of hearing evidence that the former flight attendant, a nonsmoker who was a flight attendant for more than 25 years, reportedly would die within two years from work-related lung cancer. Routh, who is seeking millions of dollars in compensation, also claims to suffer from chronic sinusitis and chronic bronchitis. The court will begin selecting a new jury next week.

“Jury selection will begin on Monday, and the trial will continue after that,” said Ellen Matthews, a spokeswoman for R.J. Reynolds, one of the defendants in the lawsuit.

The case is the latest suit by a former flight attendant to go to trial in Florida under a 1997 settlement in which the tobacco industry agreed to pay $350 million to settle class-action claims of flight attendants suffering from cancer and respiratory illnesses. The accord allowed thousands of attendants to bring individual cases, while barring punitive damages.

Routh, 54, flew for Allegheny Airlines, and later US Airways, from 1972 to 1999. She experienced “tens of thousands” of hours of second-hand smoke before 1996, when the airline banned smoking on all flights worldwide, her lawyers say.

She worked on domestic and international flights until she was diagnosed with lung cancer in 1999. She had surgery in December 2002 to remove two-thirds of her right lung, her lawyer Stuart Silver told the jury.

Attorneys for the cigarette makers, which also include Philip Morris USA, Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp. and Lorillard Tobacco Co., contend there is no evidence that second-hand smoke caused Routh’s cancer or other health problems.

Lawyers for the tobacco companies asked Judge Herbert Stettin for a mistrial after the loss of two jurors left only five to hear the case. Stettin, who stepped in to replace Judge Harold Solomon, who was injured in a fall last week, granted the companies’ request.

Of the handful of cases to proceed since the 1997 settlement, only one plaintiff has won, with a Miami jury awarding $5.5 million. A trial judge reduced that award to $500,000. The Routh case is the first lung cancer case to go to trial under the accord, which provided no payments to the individual flight attendants.

Shares of Altria Group Inc., the parent of Philip Morris, rose 3 cents to close $40.60 on the New York Stock Exchange. R.J. Reynolds rose 43 cents to $34.24, while Loews shares fell 10 cents to $41.01.