Stock image.
Kailua-Kona, HI— Attorneys debated who was responsible for a Hawaii man’s laryngeal cancer, as trial opened earlier this month against R.J. Reynolds, maker of the cigarettes he smoked for decades. Manious v. R.J. Reynolds, 3CCV-22-72.
Marvin Manious was diagnosed with laryngeal cancer in 2020, after 35 years of smoking and roughly six years after he quit cigarettes. Manious claims Reynolds, maker of the Kool-brand cigarettes he favored, manufactured and marketed cigarettes it knew were dangerous and addictive while working to hide those dangers from the public.
During his opening statement, Manious’ attorney, The Alvarez Law Firm’s Xavier Navarro, previewed evidence, including decades of tobacco industry documents, that he said showed Reynolds targeted teens like Manious, who began smoking at 15, aiming to hook them to cigarettes, all while working to undercut public health warnings of the risks of smoking.
“The evidence is going to show that they chose to design their product to create and sustain addiction,” Navarro said. “They chose to defraud the American public. They chose to target teenagers.”
But Reynolds contends Manious chose to smoke despite knowing its risks. During his opening statement, King & Spalding’s Randy Bassett told jurors Manious began smoking more than a decade after health warnings first appeared on cigarette packs and that he was warned by family members and doctors to quit smoking. Bassett added that, while Manious had been given smoking cessation aids, he was not motivated to give up cigarettes until he ultimately quit in 2014.
“He wanted to continue smoking,” Bassett told jurors. “And that’s what he did, up until the year 2014, when he made a decision to actually quit.”
Trial is expected to last into December.
Email Arlin Crisco at acrisco@cvn.com.
Related information
Not a subscriber?
Learn how you can access an unrivaled trial video library.
