Morton Downey Jr. Plans to Sue Tobacco Industry

Former talk show host Morton Downey Jr., who has contracted lung cancer, is planning to sue the tobacco industry and the Kansas City, Mo., law firm of Shook, Hardy & Bacon, his lawyer said Thursday.

Steven Kramer, Downey’s New York City lawyer, told Reuters that the suit will be filed next month in New Jersey, where Downey had lived and his show was produced.

“He wants to speak out to stop young people from smoking,” Kramer said. “He’s very angry at the tobacco companies for not telling the truth about nicotine.”

The suit by Downey, who lives in Sherman Oaks, is the latest in a host of legal attacks on the tobacco industry. On Thursday, a jury in Indianapolis began deliberating in a wrongful-death case against four tobacco companies.

Also on Thursday, Oklahoma became the 14th state to sue the industry to recoup health-care costs and also sued the Shook Hardy law firm, which has been the tobacco industry’s first line of legal defense for more than 40 years.

Shook Hardy had no immediate comment on the Oklahoma suit.

Today, the White House plans to announce its endorsement of Food and Drug Administration regulations aimed at keeping cigarettes away from children.

Downey, 63, underwent surgery in July at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, where doctors removed a tumor from the upper lobe of his right lung.

The former television personality, who used to be a strong advocate of smokers’ rights, announced last month that his lung cancer was the result of 50 years of smoking.

He recently made an anti-smoking public service announcement on behalf of the American Lung Assn.

Kramer said the Downey suit will be filed in Newark, N.J., federal court and will be brought under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.

Last week Kramer filed two other RICO actions against the tobacco industry in New York and New Jersey. He said he believes the cases were the first to name Shook Hardy as a defendant.

One suit was brought Aug. 12 in Newark federal court by Judy Mantel, a 61-year-old New Jersey resident who had smoked for 45 years and who has been found to have lung cancer.

The other suit was filed Aug. 13 in New York Supreme Court in Queens County by four plaintiffs, one of whom wrote advertising copy about Kent cigarettes.

The complaints alleged that the tobacco industry has lied about its knowledge of the addictive nature of nicotine.

Shook Hardy has come under growing scrutiny since 1994 when internal Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp. documents surfaced that suggested the law firm worked with tobacco companies to generate favorable scientific reports.