MIAMI (Legal Newsline) – Philip Morris can’t be sued by a man who alleged his laryngeal cancer who alleged the company’s marketing led him to believe cigarettes were getting healthier.
The Florida Third District Court of Appeal on Sept. 22 tossed Edward Principe’s lawsuit, overturning a $10.6 million verdict from the Miami-Dade County trial court. It ruled his 2017 lawsuit was brought outside the 12-year statute of limitations for tobacco claims.
Principe argued Philip Morris engaged in wrongful conduct in the period from 2005 until his lawsuit was filed in 2017, citing a 2011 deposition in which a Philip Morris corporate rep testified the company believed filtered cigarettes reduce the risk of cancer and also the company continuing to sell filtered cigarettes.
“We do not quarrel with Principe’s assertion that Dr. Lipowicz’s deposition testimony was knowingly false, thus establishing the first two elements of fraud,” Judge Edwin Scales wrote.
“We agree, though, with PM’s argument that Dr. Lipowicz’s compelled testimony in a deposition in an unrelated case was not intended to induce anyone to act. The testimony was not intended to induce nonsmokers to start smoking; it was not intended to induce smokers to smoke more cigarettes; nor was it intended to induce smokers of non-filtered cigarettes to smoke filtered cigarettes.”
The case is not a part of the long-running Engle litigation in Florida. In those cases, smokers were given a deadline to file their claims, and the findings of fact from a class action called Engle are used in their cases – often leading to multimillion-dollar verdicts.
Principe’s case was filed well after the Engle deadline, so his attorneys attempted to prove Philip Morris was still engaged in fraud.
Principe began smoking Parliament filtered cigarettes in 1970 and switched to filtered Marlboros in 1980. More than a decade later, he switched to Marlboro Ultra Lights.
He says he thought he was progressing to a healthier brand each time he switched. He stopped smoking in 1998, the same year states reached the landmark tobacco settlement. In the early 2000s, Philip Morris’ website declared “There is no ‘safe’ cigarette.”
In 2016, Principe was diagnosed with laryngeal cancer. His larynx has since been removed, leaving him with permanent breathing, eating and speaking problems.
A jury awarded him $360,000 for medical expenses and $10.2 million in future pain and suffering damages. The trial judge denied PM’s motion for directed verdict that argued the case had been filed too late.
“PM’s disclaimers did not suggest, either overtly or subtly, that a smoker’s health concerns could be alleviated by smoking filtered cigarettes. To the contrary, the advice and messaging in the disclaimers are absolute and unequivocal: those with any health concerns should quit smoking because there are no safe cigarettes,” Judge Scales wrote.