Case Against Cigarette Firm Handed to Jury

A man who died after smoking for 54 years was depicted during closing arguments Thursday in a cigarette-linked wrongful death trial as a victim whose addiction to smoking cost him his life.

But attorneys for R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., whose cigarettes the man smoked, contended that he smoked because “he liked the taste” and he died because of an assortment of ailments not related to smoking.

Jury deliberations in the trial, which opened five weeks ago, begin today. The $1-million suit alleges that cigarettes made by Reynolds caused the death of John Galbraith in 1982, at the age of 69.

San Francisco attorney Melvin Belli, representing the Galbraith family, said in his closing statement that he had proved that Galbraith was addicted to smoking. And he said, cigarettes are lethal and tobacco companies do not adequately warn smokers of the risks.

“Everything he had, all his emphysema and lung disease was either caused by smoking or aggravated or exacerbated by smoking . . . ,” Belli said. “First they (cigarettes) catch and hold you, and then you’re killed.”

But Reynolds attorney Thomas Workman said Galbraith could have quit smoking whenever he wanted to, but Galbraith made the choice to smoke even after several doctors suggested that he quit.

“Nobody forced him to smoke; nobody put a gun to his head . . . ,” Workman said. “He smoked because he liked to and because he liked the taste. That’s the reason anybody smokes.”

The suit is one of 45 cigarette-liability cases pending throughout the nation, and is the first to go to trial. The outcome of the suits could have a far-reaching impact on the tobacco industry.

Belli, who jabbed the podium and gesticulated theatrically in the courtroom packed with more than 100 spectators, told jurors that they should look at the case like any other product-liability suit. And, he said, they should regard cigarettes like any product that causes harm.

“If you buy a car and there is a fault in the transmission or the frame and your daughter was driving and was killed, would you be satisfied if they said we knew the risk . . . and then they said it’s your fault?” Belli asked. “The job of warning is the manufacturers’. If anything is wrong with the product they have to vibrantly and vigorously say something is wrong with that car or that cigarette, so you can decide.”

At the time Galbraith became “hooked” on cigarettes, Belli said, there was no warning by the U.S. surgeon general on cigarette packages. And Reynolds is negligent, Belli contended, because the current warnings are inadequate. They do not express the magnitude of health problems associated with smoking, he said, and they are watered down by other “literature” put out by the tobacco companies.

Belli showed the jurors a blow-up of Galbraith’s death certificate, which stated that his death was caused by heart disease and pulmonary fibrosis. Lung cancer and emphysema, according to the certificate were “other conditions contributing, but not related, to the immediate cause of death.”

Galbraith’s radiation treatment for lung cancer, however, was a “substantial factor in bringing about his death,” said Paul Monzione, a lawyer in the Belli firm.

‘Pure Speculation’

But Workman said that was “pure speculation.” Galbraith had a “long and terrible medical history,” Workman said, and he suffered from tuberculosis, chronic ulcers, pulmonary fibrosis (lung scarring) and heart disease. And, because Galbraith’s father and two brothers died prematurely of heart disease, he was genetically predisposed to heart problems.

“He died of diseases totally unrelated to cigarette smoking,” Workman said. “The evidence shows he died of heart disease, like his father and two brothers. The importance of genetics as a risk factor in heart disease is an uniquely powerful factor.”

The exact cause of death is in question because no autopsy was done on Galbraith’s body. Galbraith’s widow, Elayne, who was in the courtroom Thursday along with two of her three children, had testified that her husband opposed the idea of an autopsy, because “he had suffered enough and he didn’t want any more done to his body,”

“You can’t blame not having the autopsy on Mr. Galbraith, but you can blame it on the lawyer,” Workman said. “If anyone knows the importance of proof in a court of law it’s Melvin Belli. . . .”

Sought Out Plaintiff

Belli, who said he will donate any share of his award to cancer research, was in contact with Galbraith before he died. He filed the suit after he asked a group of workers in hospices about victims of a type of lung cancer associated with smoking. A nurse put him in touch with the Galbraith family.

Last week, a federal judge in Knoxville threw out a $55-million liability suit against Reynolds.