In his closing rebuttal in the Vasko v. Reynolds Engle tobacco trial, Plaintiff attorney Stuart Ratzan aggressively challenged the R.J. Reynolds' statute of limitations defense. "The same people who denied in 1990 that cigarettes caused COPD now say that they have proved that Mr. Vasko should known that he had COPD caused by cigarette smoking? Come on guys!" said Mr. Ratzan. "Not that he had a cough, but that he had COPD?" Mr. Ratzan suggested that some of the jurors might not even have known what COPD was before they heard this case. Mr. Vasko's doctor had not concluded that Mr. Vasko had COPD, said Mr. Ratzan, so would a reasonable person have diagnosed himself with COPD caused by smoking based on a cough that he had had all his life?
