Flight attendants may seek class action in passive smoking case, court holds.A Florida appeals court has cleared the way for 60,000 flight attendants to pursue a class action against several tobacco companies for illnesses allegedly caused by in flight exposure to 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. . The court overruled a judge who dismissed the class action two years ago. (Broin v. Philip Mowis Cos., No. 92-1405, 1994 WL 81712 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. Mar. 15, 1994).) Thy named plaintiffs A named plaintiff is one of the small group of individual plaintiffs in a class action who are identified by name and who stand in for and represent the interests of the larger group of people who comprise the plaintiff class. are current and former flight attendants who do not smoke. They claim that breathing secondhand smoke in airplane cabins caused their cancers, lung diseases lung disease Pulmonary disease Pulmonology Any condition causing or indicating impaired lung function Types of LD Obstructive lung disease–↓ in air flow caused by a narrowing or blockage of airways–eg, asthma, emphysema, chronic bronchitis; , and other illnesses. Their exposure occurred before federal law banned smoking on domestic flights in 1989. The three-judge panel rejected the lower court's finding that the members of the proposed class do not present common legal issues. "If class actions were dependent on class members presenting carbon copy claims, there would be few, if any, instances of class action litigation An action brought in court to enforce a particular right. The act or process of bringing a lawsuit in and of itself; a judicial contest; any dispute. When a person begins a civil lawsuit, the person enters into a process called litigation. ," Judge Natalie Baskin wrote for the panel. "It is virtually impossible to design a class whose members have identical claims." Baskin also noted that requiring the flight attendants to file separate suits would unfairly burden them. "Although defendants would not lack the financial resources to defend each separate lawsuit, the vast majority of class members, in less advantageous financial positions, would be deprived of a remedy. We decline to promote such a result," she wrote. Stanley Rosenblatt, a Miami attorney who represents the flight attendants, said he made litigation expense an issue during oral argument last year. "That's the game of the tobacco industry and its lawyers," he said. "They just bury plaintiffs in an avalanche of paper and expense." He said the decision is "of monumental significance" because litigating separate claims in different states would have been "a burden beyond belief." William Ohlemeyer of Kansas City Kansas City, two adjacent cities of the same name, one (1990 pop. 149,767), seat of Wyandotte co., NE Kansas (inc. 1859), the other (1990 pop. 435,146), Clay, Jackson, and Platte counties, NW Mo. (inc. 1850). , who represents defendants Philip Morris Cos. and Lorillard, Inc., said the effect of the decision remains to be seen because "[class] certification is not a foregone conclusion foregone conclusion n. 1. An end or a result regarded as inevitable: The victory was a foregone conclusion. See Usage Note at foregone. 2. ." At TRIAL press time, the defendants--several cigarette manufacturers and their parent companies-were considering whether to petition for rehearing rehearing n. conducting a hearing again based on the motion of one of the parties to a lawsuit, petition or criminal prosecution, usually by the court or agency which originally heard the matter. or to appeal to the Florida Supreme Court. |
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