
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, January 28, 1994                   TAG: 9401280170
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: BATON ROUGE, LA.                                LENGTH: Short

CANCER VICTIM'S FAMILY LOSES CIGARETTE LAWSUIT

A jury of nonsmokers ruled Thursday that cigarettes are unreasonably dangerous, but refused to force a cigarette maker to pay damages in the death of a lung cancer victim.

Jane Covert started smoking when she was 15 and didn't quit her pack-a-day habit until she was diagnosed with cancer 40 years later.

She and her family sued Lorillard Inc., makers of Kent cigarettes, seeking $1.2 million in damages. She died in 1987 at 56.

The jurors, none of them smokers, ruled that the danger of cigarettes outweighed the benefits. But they ruled for Lorillard when asked if the cigarettes caused Covert's cancer.

Medical experts called by the defense testified that her cancer was centered at the periphery of her lung - away from the windpipe - and thus unlikely to have been caused by breathing smoke. Testimony also showed that she regularly smoked brands other than Kent. - Associated Press

by CNB