The Nation - News from Aug. 25, 1988

A federal judge in Newark, N.J., refused to dismiss an unprecedented verdict finding a cigarette company partially to blame for the lung cancer death of a woman who smoked a pack a day for 40 years. U.S. District Judge H. Lee Sarokin’s 36-page opinion denying numerous post-trial motions from both the plaintiff and defense cleared the way for an appeal that could bring the lawsuit before the Supreme Court. Sarokin’s ruling also preserved a jury’s June 13 award of $400,000 in damages to the widower of Rose Cipollone, of Little Ferry, N.J., who died of lung cancer in 1984 at age 58. Sarokin denied a request for a new trial by Liggett Group Inc., maker of the Chesterfields and L&M; brands that Cipollone smoked from 1942 to 1968. Liggett, one of three cigarette makers named in the lawsuit, was the only defendant cited by the jury for contributing to her death.