WINSTON-SALEM, N.C., Nov. 16 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Today a Miami jury found that R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company and other cigarette manufacturers were not liable in the case of a former flight attendant who died of lung cancer in 1996. The suit was brought by Gloria Menchini, who claimed her daughter Annette contracted lung cancer from exposure to secondhand smoke on airplanes.
"After hearing and evaluating all the facts in this case, the six-member jury agreed that exposure to secondhand smoke in airplanes did not cause Annette Menchini's condition," said J. Jeffery Raborn, senior counsel for R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company.
The Menchini case stems from the Broin class-action suit, which was settled in 1997.
Menchini is the ninth flight attendant case to go to trial since 2001. Juries have ruled in favor of the tobacco industry in seven cases although a judge ordered a new trial in one of those cases. In the other two cases, one ended in a verdict against the industry. The other case ended in a mistrial and was subsequently dismissed.
Other defendants in the case included Philip Morris USA Inc., Lorillard Tobacco Company and Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corporation, now known as Brown & Williamson Holdings, Inc. Brown & Williamson's domestic tobacco business merged with R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company on July 31, 2004.
R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, an indirect subsidiary of Reynolds American Inc. , is the second-largest tobacco company in the United States, manufacturing about one of every three cigarettes sold in the country. The company's brands include six of the 10 best-selling U.S. cigarette brands: Camel, Kool, Pall Mall, Winston, Salem and Doral. For more information, visit http://www.rjrt.com/ .
