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Woburn, MA— Attorneys debated responsibility for the death of a Massachusetts woman who smoked for decades, as trial opened Wednesday against Philip Morris. LaJeunesse v. Philip Morris, 2081-CV-01446.
Linda LaJeunesse was diagnosed with lung cancer and died in 2020, at 64, after decades of smoking. LaJeunesse’s family claims Philip Morris, makers of the Marlboro-brand cigarettes she favored for much of her life, is responsible for her cancer death, by fueling her addiction to cigarettes and concealing their dangers.
During Wednesday’s opening statements, The LaJeunesse family’s lawyer, Gary Paige, of Gordon & Partners, walked through evidence he said showed Philip Morris sold cigarettes that were legally defective, because they were addictive and caused a range of diseases, including cancer, despite the fact that the company could have produced safer alternative products. And Paige said the tobacco company engaged in a range of marketing and messaging initiatives to undercut scientific evidence about smoking’s risks.
Paige added that this served to addict LaJeunesse to smoking, and caused her to return to cigarettes despite multiple quit attempts across her life, ultimately leading to her fatal cancer.
“Their youth marketing and their deceptive practices and their unsafe cigarettes were a cause [of LaJeunesse’s cancer], regardless of what they say about Linda and if you think she could have tried harder [to quit].”
But Philip Morris argues its cigarettes are not defectively designed and that LaJeunesse’s own smoking decisions led to her cancer.
During his opening statement Wednesday, Fasi & DiBello’s Joseph Fasi II told jurors that cigarettes are inherently dangerous, and he said that proposed alternative designs, such as ultra-low nicotine or heat-not-burn products, would not necessarily have made cigarettes safer or helped to avoid LaJeunesse’s cancer.
And Fasi added that evidence would show that LaJeunesse was warned for decades that smoking was dangerous, from sources as varied as cautionary labels on cigarette packs to her husband’s heart attack, which doctors blamed on smoking. Yet, Fasi told jurors, LaJeunesse continued to smoke, not giving up cigarettes for good until the year of her cancer diagnosis.
“Mrs. LaJeunesse did not start smoking because she was forced or fooled to,” Fasi said. “And Mrs. LaJeunesse did not keep smoking because she needed a different cigarette to quit sooner.
Trial is expected to run into next month.
Email Arlin Crisco at acrisco@cvn.com.
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