Feb 16, 2009 1:34 pm US/Eastern
Former 'Winston Man' Sues Tobacco Companies
One of 8,000 suits against tobacco giants in Florida
LAUDERHILL, Fla (CBS4) ―
He spent more than a decade promoting Winston cigarettes, now at age 68, Alan Landers is suing the companies he once supported. Landers posed with cigarettes on billboards and in magazines in the 1960s and 1970s, but now he is receiving treatment for a cancerous tumor on his right tonsil.
Landers previously battled lung cancer and emphysema. His lawsuit is one of 8,000 individual suits going to trial against tobacco companies in Florida. The trial is set for April in Palm Beach County.
Last week a Broward County jury decided that an addiction to nicotine caused one South Florida man's death. Stuart Hess died of lung cancer at age 55 after smoking for 40 years. The lawsuit was filed by his wife Elaine Hess who says her husband tried to quit by using everything from nicotine gum to hypnosis, but nothing worked.
Lawyers for the tobacco company claim Hess was not addicted to their client's products and could have quit anytime. Jurors now have to decide if tobacco giant Philip Morris owes any damages.
This lawsuit against Philip Morris is the first to go to trial since the Florida Supreme Court in 2006 threw out a $145 billion class-action jury award, ruling that each case had to be proven individually.
In their ruling, the state Supreme Court justices upheld the jury's findings that the tobacco companies sold dangerous products and deceived smokers about the addictive nature of smoking. To that end, the court ruled that the plaintiffs could sue the companies on an individual basis.
(© 2010 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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