The first tobacco trial of what is termed the “Engle” plaintiffs has resulted in a total verdict for Mrs. Hess and her son in th eamount of $8 million.

Big Tobacco’s lawyers, once again, attempted to shift all the blame away from themselves and against Mr. Hess. The jury apparently saw it otherwise.

The jury deliberated approximately 2 1/2 hours. Mrs. Hess reportedly wept, undoubtedly happy to have had this grueling fight reach a close.

Unfortunately, if Big Tobacco takes its normal approach, they will search for every grain upon which to base an appeal. It is unlikely that Big Tobacco will ever own up to its mid-twentieth century manipulation of smokers.

Tags: addiction, Big Tobacco, cigarette, Engle, hess, tobacco

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 18th, 2009 at 4:26 pm and is filed under Corporate Fraud, Defective Design, Mass Torts, Product Defect. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response.