FORT LAUDERDALE, FL / ACCESSWIRE / March 29, 2019 / A Broward County, Florida, jury on Friday awarded $10 million in damages to against R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company and Philip Morris USA Inc., for the wrongful death a woman who died three months after being diagnosed with cancer. Jurors found that Dorothy Milinkovich died from lung cancer and COPD caused by an addiction to the tobacco companies' cigarettes. The case was tried by the Schlesinger Law Firm on behalf of Mrs. Milinkovich's daughter, Deborah Neff.
"In generations past, the tobacco industry used sophisticated deception techniques to lure young people into chronic drug dependence . This time, the next generation held them accountable," said Scott Schlesinger, who along with attorneys Steven J. Hammer, Jonathan Gdanski and Brittany Chambers, represented Ms. Neff, Dorothy Milinkovich's sole surviving heir. "This woman's daughter bravely confronted cigarette makers for creating a powerfully addictive product that hooked her mother and eventually killed her."
The jury awarded $4 million in compensatory damages for Ms. Neff, and $6 million in punitive damages. The jury found that Milinkovich was addicted to cigarettes containing nicotine and that addiction led to her death from lung cancer. They also found that Ms. Milinkovich relied on statements made by the companies that concealed or omitted information related to cigarettes' addictive nature.
Dorothy "Dot" Milinkovich was born in Waterbury, Connecticut, on May 12, 1923. She began smoking at 14. At the peak of her addiction to nicotine, Mrs. Milinkovich was smoking three packs a day. In 1952, she and her husband, Henry Isyk, moved to Miami. In 1959, they settled with their three children in Hollywood.
In September 1994, Ms. Milinkovich wasn't feeling well and went to her doctor. She was diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma and COPD. The cancer ultimately spread to her brain, bones, and other organs rendering it inoperable and incurable. She died in December 1994.
Though defense attorneys tried to blame Ms. Milinkovich for her illness and death, the evidence pointed to the cigarette makers. The nicotine in their product began changing the young brain in 14-year-old Dot, and by adulthood, she was deeply addicted. Filters and "low tar" cigarettes did little to slow the need to satisfy the drug addiction. "They were just falsely reassuring," Schlesinger said.
Using "Raleigh coupons" earned with each pack she would buy of the brand, Ms. Milinkovich eventually traded them for an infant rocker for her children. Though raised with that rocker that she passed down to her kids, Ms. Neff lost all affection for it when the truth came out. "She learned it wasn't something to be cherished," Schlesinger recalled Ms. Neff saying. "It was a symbol of the cigarette companies' deception."
Comforted in a quilt as she lay in her daughter's Oakland Park home, Ms. Milinkovich died of metastatic lung cancer in December 1994. Deborah was at her side, as she had been for the last three months of her mother's life.
"She was there when I took my first breath," Ms. Neff testified at trial, that same quilt close by. "So I was there when she took her last."
Ms. Milinkovich's case is one of thousands of similar "Engle progeny" cases stemming from the Florida Supreme Court overturning a $145 billion verdict against the companies. The court also ruled plaintiffs - numbering close to 700,000 - could use findings from that case to file future lawsuits against tobacco companies.
ABOUT SCHLESINGER LAW OFFICES
Based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Schlesinger Law Offices is a personal injury law firm dedicated to holding corporations, manufacturers and medical providers accountable for harm caused to members of the public by acts of negligence and misconduct. The firm has a reputation for powerful advocacy and has obtained justice and compensation for hundreds of clients. For more information, log on to www.schlesingerlawoffices.com or call (954) 866-5493.
SOURCE: Schlesinger Law Offices PA
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