A smokeless tobacco company has agreed to pay $5 million to the family of a man who died of mouth cancer in what the family's attorney and an expert called the first wrongful death settlement from chewing tobacco. Attorney Antonio Ponvert III told The Associated Press on Tuesday that U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Co. agreed to pay $5 million to the family of Bobby Hill of Canton, N.C.
"This company manufactures and sells a dangerous and defective product that it knows causes addiction, disease and death in consumers who use it as intended," Ponvert said. The company, which makes Copenhagen and Skoal brands and was headquartered in Greenwich, Conn. before it was acquired by Altria last year, confirmed the settlement in a regulatory filing, but declined further comment.
Mark Gottlieb, director of the Tobacco Products Liability Project at Northeastern School of Law in Boston, said he believes it's the first case of its kind and predicted more lawsuits involving smokeless tobacco. "I think this is sort of a wakeup call to the plaintiff's bar that there are a lot of victims of smokeless tobacco use out there and it's possible these cases can be successful," Gottlieb said.
Past lawsuits against smokeless tobacco makers were not successful and lawyers focused more on cigarette makers due to stronger evidence to back up their claims even though smokeless tobacco is harmful as well, Gottlieb said.
"The cigarette is sort of the dirty needle of nicotine delivery," Gottlieb said. Tobacco companies have traditionally vigorously fought such lawsuits, Gottlieb said.
