Jury Rejects Claim Against Tobacco Company

Jurors rejected claims by the family of a dead smoker that the low-tar, low-nicotine cigarettes he smoked were no safer than other tobacco products. The federal court jury in Charleston, S.C., acted after deliberating almost four hours. Martin Little, who died in 1998, would still be alive if Carlton cigarettes had delivered as promised, his family had alleged in the lawsuit against Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp. Carlton was made by American Tobacco, which later merged with Brown & Williamson. During closing arguments Monday, the family’s lawyer, Charles Patrick Jr., had asked the jurors to award $970,000 for medical costs, other expenses and the loss of Little’s earnings. The case was heard in a state in which last season’s tobacco crop was worth $127 million. Little sued Brown & Williamson in 1998 but died of lung cancer the next year, a day after his 54th birthday.