Jury Selection Begins for Remaining Claim Against Philip Morris USA in Los Angeles Trial
Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Victoria Chaney today will summon 400 people for jury selection for a retrial of a fraud claim brought by Fredric Reller, a California resident and former smoker, against Philip Morris USA, Reuters/Los Angeles Times reports (Reuters/Los Angeles Times, 9/22). The action comes after a jury last month ruled that Philip Morris was not liable for Reller's inoperable lung cancer. Reller accused Philip Morris of fraud, negligence, failure to warn about the health risks of its products and marketing a defective product. Reller smoked Marlboro or Benson & Hedges Menthol cigarettes, both Philip Morris products, for about 40 years and quit when he was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2000. The jury deadlocked on the current fraud claim (California Healthline, 8/1). Attorneys for Philip Morris asked Chaney to dismiss the claim, but she instead ruled that the claim would be retried (Reuters/Los Angeles Times, 9/22).
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