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Click here for Jury Verdict Form.
Ex-Mayor Naugle's sister wins $300 million Big Tobacco verdict
Posted by Brittany Wallman on November 19, 2009 06:28 PM
November 19, 2009
Cindy Naugle, the 61-year-old-sister of former Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jim Naugle, won a $300 million jury verdict Thursday in Broward County Circuit Court against Philip Morris tobacco company.
The jury found her 10 percent at fault for smoking for 25 years starting when she was 20.
The lawyers said ex-Mayor Naugle was present during a lot of the 16-day trial. He didn't answer his cell phone when I called for comment.
The sister of former Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jim Naugle won a $300 million jury verdict Thursday, the largest individual win in the Big Tobacco lawsuits in Florida.
Cindy Naugle, an office manager and bookkeeper at Layton’s Garage in Fort Lauderdale, sued Philip Morris, owner of her cigarette brand of choice, Benson & Hedges.
Naugle was found only 10 percent at fault for taking up smoking when she was 20 years old. She quit 25 years later.
Her lawyers, Bob Kelley, Todd Falzone and Todd McPharlin of Kelley Uustal law firm in Fort Lauderdale, argued that the cigarette maker committed fraud because it knew but concealed that smoking cigarettes is addictive and harmful to your health.
They said Naugle took up smoking in 1968, thinking it would make her look older and sophisticated. She chose the slim, long Benson & Hedges, marketed as sophisticated and feminine, they said.
Naugle, who is 60 now, has emphysema and labors to do the simplest tasks. Attorney Bob Kelley said in a news release that she “spends every minute of every day as if she were drowning.’’
Tubes from her nose connect to a portable oxygen concentrator, and she sometimes depends on a wheelchair, her attorneys said.
The verdict came within three hours of deliberating, on the 16th day of trial before Broward County Circuit Court Judge Jeffrey Streitfeld.
“She cried,’’ attorney McPharlin said of her reaction to the verdict. “She was just overcome.’’
Jim Naugle, one of her two brothers, was mayor of Fort Lauderdale until earlier this year, when term limits required him to leave his seat. He couldn’t immediately be reached for comment Thursday.
Article Copyright © 1999, CNN |
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