$37M verdict reversed after lawyer calls makers of tobacco soulless enterprise of death
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A lawyer’s literary references and descriptive comments in closing arguments has doomed a $37 million verdict obtained against two tobacco companies, the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. and Philip Morris USA Inc.
In a June 30 opinion, the Florida Fourth District Court of Appeal reversed a $37 million verdict awarded to widower Richard Mahfuz, whose wife died of lung cancer.
The improper argument included references to George Orwell’s dystopian novel
1984 and Oscar Wilde’s book
The Picture of Dorian Gray.
Law360 identified the plaintiffs lawyer who made the improper comment as Scott P. Schlesinger of the Schlesinger Law Offices. The appeals court said the counsel improperly: