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Fort Lauderdale, FL— Jurors Monday heard competing narratives surrounding what drove a Florida woman to smoke for decades, as trial over her cancer death opened against the nation’s two largest tobacco companies. Neff v. R.J. Reynolds and Philip Morris, 2007-CV-036745.
Dorothy Milinkovich started smoking when she was about 14 and continued smoking up to three-plus packs of cigarettes a day for roughly 57 years, before her lung cancer death in 1994 at age 71. Milinkovich’s daughter, Deborah Neff, contends R.J. Reynolds, maker of the brands Milinkovich favored, is responsible for her death by hooking her to a product it knew was dangerous. Neff also contends that Reynolds, along with Philip Morris, whose brands Milinkovich did not smoke, were part of a tobacco industry conspiracy to hide the dangers of cigarettes throughout much of the latter half of the 20th century, and that the conspiracy ultimately helped drive Milinkovich’s smoking decisions.
The case is one of thousands of ‘Engle Progeny” lawsuits, cases spun from a decertified 1990s class action by Florida smokers against the nation’s tobacco companies. In decertifying the class following a trial court verdict against the companies, the Florida Supreme Court ruled that individual Engle progeny plaintiffs can recover damages only if they prove the smoker at the heart of each case was addicted to cigarettes that legally caused a smoking-related illness.
During Monday’s opening statements, Neff’s attorney, Scott Schlesinger, of Schlesinger Law Offices, walked jurors through evidence he said would show Reynolds and Philip Morris knew the dangers of smoking but worked in concert to undercut warnings and other information surrounding the health impact of cigarettes.
“They denied that cigarettes caused cancer and were addictive every day of Dot Milinkovich’s life,” Schlesinger said. “They continued to deny it up to the day she died and for years afterward.”
Schlesinger added evidence would show Milinkovich was powerfully addicted to cigarettes, failing in multiple quit attempts despite using aids ranging from nicotine patches to hypnosis, and smoking up until shortly before her death.
But the defense argues Milinkovich was well aware of the dangers of smoking and did not do enough to try to quit in time to avoid her cancer. On Monday, Reynolds’ attorney, King & Spalding’s Cory Hohnbaum, told jurors Milinkovich knew of smoking’s risks, but spent no more than a half-day total across roughly 57 years trying to stop smoking before she was diagnosed with cancer.
“Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, that establishes that she did not want to quit,” Hohnbaum said. “Because if you want to quit, guess what you do? You try.”
And Philip Morris’ attorney, Kim Vaughan Lerner’s Robert Vaughan, told jurors there was nothing to establish Milinkovich ever relied on tobacco industry initiatives made in furtherance of a tobacco industry conspiracy.
“Even if Ms. Milinkovich saw a statement from some other tobacco company or tobacco industry group, nothing that they would have said, nothing that her family said or would have said, would have changed her smoking behavior,” Vaughan said.
This is the second time the case has been before a jury. In 2019, a Florida jury handed down a $10 million verdict in the case. That decision was ultimately reversed by the state’s Fourth District Court of Appeal, which concluded improper arguments during closings required a retrial.
Trial is expected to last through next week.
Email Arlin Crisco at acrisco@cvn.com.
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