BIG TOBACCO YIELDS TO FLIGHT ATTENDANTS; CLASS ACTION ENDS IN LANDMARK SETTLEMENT.Byline: Knight-Ridder Tribune News Wire The flight attendants' long-shot legal war against cigarette manufacturers ended Friday with a stunning battlefield surrender by Big Tobacco: An unprecedented $349 million settlement in the landmark secondhand smoke sec·ond·hand smoke n. Cigarette, cigar, or pipe smoke that is inhaled unintentionally by nonsmokers and may be injurious to their health if inhaled regularly over a long period. Also called passive smoke. case. Individual flight attendants will receive no money in the deal. Instead, the tobacco industry agreed to funnel $300 million into a newly created medical research foundation. The rest of the money goes to the flight attendants' lawyers, the Miami husband-and-wife team of Stanley and Susan Rosenblatt. Their payday Friday: $46 million in fees plus $3 million to offset costs Costs for which funds have been appropriated but will not be obligated because of a contingency operation. See also contingency operation. . Longtime foes of the tobacco industry, the Rosenblatts declared moral and financial victory, and they savored the triumph against superior forces and overwhelming odds. Throughout the four-month trial, the two attorneys faced off against more than a dozen tobacco lawyers supported by nearly unlimited budgets and resources. And, until 10:06 a.m. Friday, the tobacco industry had never settled a private lawsuit involving cigarette smoke. ``We're very pleased with the outcome,'' Stanley Rosenblatt said. ``We think it's fair. There's always a tremendous amount of uncertainty in respect to a verdict. Now, we have certainty.'' Norma Broin, the American Airlines American Airlines Major U.S. airline. American was created through a merger of several smaller U.S. airlines and incorporated in 1934. It continued to buy the routes of other airlines, becoming an international carrier in the 1970s; its routes include South America, the flight attendant who launched the crusade after contracting and beating lung cancer lung cancer, cancer that originates in the tissues of the lungs. Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in the United States in both men and women. Like other cancers, lung cancer occurs after repeated insults to the genetic material of the cell. , said: ``I'm happy today. This allowed us to accomplish everything we desired.'' The Rosenblatts filed the class-action lawsuit Oct. 31, 1991, on behalf of Broin and 60,000 other flight attendants. The attendants claimed that secondhand smoke aboard jetliners gave them lung cancer, heart disease and various respiratory illnesses Noun 1. respiratory illness - a disease affecting the respiratory system respiratory disease, respiratory disorder adult respiratory distress syndrome, ARDS, wet lung, white lung - acute lung injury characterized by coughing and rales; inflammation of the . The industry made no admissions Friday and did not accept responsibility for any illnesses suffered by flight attendants. The platoon platoon Principal subdivision of a military company, battery, or troop. Usually commanded by a lieutenant, it consists of 25–50 soldiers organized into two or more squads led by noncommissioned officers. of tobacco lawyers filed out of the courtroom without saying a word publicly, but an official industry statement called the settlement ``a common sense'' and ``practical'' solution to the class action. ``The companies continue to believe that class actions are inappropriate vehicles for addressing claims of individual injury related to tobacco,'' the statement said. The settlement represented a defeat for tobacco interests, though they at least averted the possibility of a larger jury verdict. The flight attendants had demanded $5 billion in damages - a figure the Rosenblatts selected nearly at random. ``This is the first time the tobacco companies have ever paid a dime in a private settlement,'' Broin, 42, said. ``That's an admittance Admittance The ratio of the current to the voltage in an alternating-current circuit. In terms of complex current I and voltage V, the admittance of a circuit is given by Eq. (1), and is related to the impedance of the circuit Z by Eq. (2). that passive smoke is injurious in·ju·ri·ous adj. 1. Causing or tending to cause injury; harmful: eating habits that are injurious to one's health. 2. to nonsmokers.'' Even before formal announcement of the deal in Dade Circuit Court, Broin and other flight attendants hugged, high-fived, posed for pictures. The Rosenblatts were joined in court by two of their nine children, Josh, 16, and Miriam, 15, and by Susan Rosenblatt's mother. CAPTION(S): Photo: Plaintiffs Norma Broin, left, and Patty Young hug after heari ng the settlement in the secondhand smoking tobacco trial in Miami. Associated Press Associated Press: see news agency. Associated Press (AP) Cooperative news agency, the oldest and largest in the U.S. and long the largest in the world. |
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