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Coreine Wendling passed away of lung cancer on 12/28/00, the lawsuit will continue.
Michigan woman sues tobacco companies
The Associated Press - 10/7/00A Michigan woman has filed a federal lawsuit claiming that America's largest tobacco companies recklessly and negligently sold their products despite knowing the dangers to consumers.
High-profile Southfield attorney Geoffrey Fieger is one of two lawyers representing Coreine Wendling of Haslett, who suffers from lung cancer.
Welding is suing Phillip Morris Inc., R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp. and the Tobacco Institute, the industry's now-defunct public relations and lobbying arm.
Fieger and law partner William McHenry filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Kalamazoo on July 21.
The suit says Welding was a lifelong smoker of the tobacco companies' cigarette products when she was diagnosed with lung cancer on Jan. 24. The disease was "solely caused by the consumption of the products manufactured and distributed by" the companies, she claims.
The suit also says the companies and the Tobacco Institute repeatedly made false statements purporting that cigarettes weren't harmful and misrepresented their potential dangers to consumers.
The companies are accused of:
-- Intentionally violating Michigan's penal code by manufacturing and selling products containing ingredients that are unhealthy and foreign to tobacco.
-- Gross negligence, recklessness and knowledge of defect. The suit says the companies sold addictive tobacco products knowing that they were dangerous, and rather than warn consumers, they and the Tobacco Institute instead misrepresented those dangers.
-- Violating Michigan's Consumer Protection Act by misrepresenting their products.
-- Fraud, misrepresentation and breach of express and implied warranties. The lawsuit claims that the tobacco companies falsely warranted their products to be safe and not a cause of lung cancer and other health problems.
Each defendant has 20 days from the time it is served notice of the lawsuit to respond with a court filing, but no responses had been filed as of Friday.
Telephone messages seeking comment on the lawsuit were left Friday for several representatives of the tobacco companies and for a lawyer representing the Tobacco Institute.
The suit says Welding, as a result of her cigarette habit, now has a shortened life expectancy. She also has suffered physical, mental and emotional pain, has a permanent disability and has lost wages, benefits and earning capacity.
She seeks an unspecified amount of money greater than $75,000 plus punitive and exemplary damages, attorney fees, court costs and interest.
Fieger said Friday that Michigan law prohibits the sale of cigarettes made with added nicotine and other harmful substances, and that he hopes the lawsuit will shed some light on the subject for the state's residents.
Fieger also said he may seek class-action status for the lawsuit.
Archaic state law motivates tobacco suit
Cancer victim's son uncovers 1909 rule while surfing the Net
A longtime smoker who's dying of lung cancer is suing several tobacco makers.Coreine Wendling's suit accuses the companies of violating a long-standing state law that criminalizes selling, manufacturing or giving out cigarettes that contain ingredients foreign to tobacco or harmful to one's health.
The crime is classified as a misdemeanor. But Wendling and her Southfield attorneys, Geoffrey Fieger and Bill McHenry, think the 1909 law, which was revised in the 1930s, will let them win a judgment against tobacco companies.
"If I don't do anything," Wendling says, "I'll die a victim."
Wendling, 59, started smoking at age 15 and smoked for 39 years. She quit five years ago, five years after doctors had told her she had emphysema. In January, the Haslett resident learned she has lung cancer.
Shortly after the diagnosis, one of her four sons, Mark Letherer, uncovered the Michigan law while researching tobacco lawsuits on the Internet. He contacted McHenry, who said he'd review the archaic state regulation.
Wendling's suit was filed July 21 in U.S. District Court in Kalamazoo, seeking at least $75,000 in damages. The companies are expected to respond to the suit by Oct. 13.
A spokesman for one company named in the suit, Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp., downplayed the suit's legal strategy.
"The claim of adulterated cigarettes is just a novel approach by a plaintiff's attorney and is just nonsense," spokesman Steve Kottak said.
The suit also names Philip Morris Inc., R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., B.A.T. Industries and the Tobacco Institute, the industry's now-defunct public relations and lobbying arm.
McHenry said the suit follows a different strategy than other tobacco lawsuits.
"We have found and cited a Michigan statute that prohibits exactly the kind of tobacco companies are selling," McHenry said.
Charles T. Smith II, a product liability expert and lawyer from suburban Washington, D.C., agrees the Michigan law could work against the tobacco companies.
"They found something lying dormant all those years that could bite tobacco," he said.
Wendling, a former nurse, said she was addicted to cigarettes and still craves them, even after the radiation, the chemotherapy and the oxygen tubes.
She said she would like to see every pack of cigarettes taken off the shelf.
She said she lives each day feeling like she's breathing with a plastic bag over her head.
"It's terrible, one of the worst ways to die," she said.
Last summer, a Florida state jury issued a $145 billion award to members of a class-action suit brought on behalf of all Florida residents who were made sick by smoking. Tobacco companies have appealed that verdict.
The tobacco companies, under a separate 1998 settlement, will pay $206 billion to 44 states over the next 25 years to compensate states for the cost of treating smoking-related illnesses of Medicaid recipients. Four other states settled sepa rately for an additional $40 billion.