Where There’s Smoke There’s a Claim
By Robert Warne - October 3, 2003 There’s nothing unusual about Philip Morris making headlines for some kind of eye-popping settlement or judgment related to a tobacco claim. But recently the embattled tobacco giant made a legal move on a claim that caught many familiar with tobacco related litigation off guard.
The unusual occurrence was that the top cigarette maker for its first time recently agreed to pay damages in a personal injury case involving a child that suffered disfiguring burns from a fire started by a smoldering cigarette.
According to the Los Angeles Times the claim was secretly settled in May. The settlement ended a nine-year battle over whether the cigarette maker was responsible for the injuries 21-month-old Shannon Moore suffered when her mother’s Buick went up in flames.
The day the accident occurred Shelly Moore had been smoking a Marlboro 100 cigarette and had inadvertently dropped it on the car seat. She then got out of the car it went up in flames.
Asleep in her car seat when the fire started Moore’s daughter suffered burns over 77 percent of her body. Her fingers eventually needed to be amputated and she lost her hearing from the antibiotics she had to take to fight off infections.
The suit filed in a Texas state court blamed the accident on the defective design of the Marlboro 100 because it was intentionally made to burn down to the filter regardless of it being puffed.
Phillip Morris’ position was that Moore was to blame for leaving her daughter in the car unattended and that there wasn’t any proof that a cigarette caused the fire.
Some may think this settlement signals a change in legal strategy for tobacco companies, but according to the Times, William S. Ohlemeyer, vice president and associate general counsel of Philip Morris USA, this was a unique situation. He reaffirmed that, "In product liability litigation ... our policy has been to defend cases."
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