Attorneys Awarded $218 Million for Work in Overturned Smokers' Class Action

On tax day, Miami-Dade Circuit Judge David C. Miller awarded $218 million in legal fees to Stanley and Susan Rosenblatt for years of work they put into now-defunct class action litigation against the nation's biggest cigarette makers.

'I find it very reasonable,' Miller said from the bench, referring to fee calculations estimating they worked for 77 hours a week on average at an hourly rate of $274. 'These are reasonable and conservative hours.'

Tobacco attorney Robert Heim, a partner with Dechert LLP in Philadelphia, told Miller 'it would be wrong under common fund law' to award fees to the Rosenblatts, saying a guardian ad litem should be appointed to administer a fund 'to protect the interests of the class.'

The fees would come out of a common 'guaranteed fund' of about $800 million that Big Tobacco put up as collateral in 2001 to appeal the record $145 billion punitive verdict the Rosenblatts won against cigarette makers. The verdict was later thrown out by the Florida Supreme Court along with a class certification order uniting sick smokers in a single lawsuit.

Miller still must determine how to distribute the rest of the $800 million fund. Rosenblatt railed against Big Tobacco as he argued before Miller for fees in the case dating back to 1994. The two-year trial marked the first time tobacco executives acknowledged in court that smoking causes illness and is addictive. Rosenblatt had little to say after a ruling on the Miami husband-and-wife firm's huge payday. Given the industry track record in the case, an appeal is assured.

A Line to Speak

Plaintiffs and attorneys from around the state whom Rosenblatt had never met took the podium to recommend that Miller grant him fees. The plaintiffs largely belong to the roughly 8,000 lawsuits dubbed 'the Engle progeny,' the offspring of the famous class action filed on behalf of Miami Beach pediatrician Howard Engle. The case became known as Engle v. Liggett as it moved through the courts.

A line to speak in support of the Rosenblatts' fee request ran out of the room. Many people at the hearing were visibly ill or relatives of deceased smokers.

Tobacco lawyers argued the Rosenblatts had no right to the money because the punitive award was overturned and because the fund might be used for punitive awards in the Engle spin-offs. The fee petition put the people in the room in a bit of an awkward position. The Rosenblatts stumped for their own role in starting litigation that other attorneys are pursuing now, and the Engle progeny attorneys supported them. The work they did was to lay the groundwork for much of the litigation against the tobacco industry in Florida. And while the verdict was tossed and the class disbanded, the findings of the jury in the case the Rosenblatts litigated can be used for future cases.

Despite decertifying the class, the Florida Supreme Court upheld the findings of the Miami jury in the original Engle case that will guide individual smoker cases going forward. Juries in individual Engle progeny cases will be advised to accept as proven that nicotine is addictive and smoking causes cancer and more than a dozen other illnesses. Future juries considering damages also will be told tobacco companies were negligent, placed defective and unreasonably dangerous products on the market, and defrauded consumers by misleading them.

Cigarette makers, however, are not going to accept the findings as given when the individual cases go to trial. Defense attorneys around the state look at the jury findings as being open for interpretation.

Billy Shields is a reporter for the Daily Business Review, a sister publication of this newsletter.

On tax day, Miami-Dade Circuit Judge David C. Miller awarded $218 million in legal fees to Stanley and Susan Rosenblatt for years of work they put into now-defunct class action litigation against the nation's biggest cigarette makers.

'I find it very reasonable,' Miller said from the bench, referring to fee calculations estimating they worked for 77 hours a week on average at an hourly rate of $274. 'These are reasonable and conservative hours.'

Tobacco attorney Robert Heim, a partner with Dechert LLP in Philadelphia, told Miller 'it would be wrong under common fund law' to award fees to the Rosenblatts, saying a guardian ad litem should be appointed to administer a fund 'to protect the interests of the class.'

The fees would come out of a common 'guaranteed fund' of about $800 million that Big Tobacco put up as collateral in 2001 to appeal the record $145 billion punitive verdict the Rosenblatts won against cigarette makers. The verdict was later thrown out by the Florida Supreme Court along with a class certification order uniting sick smokers in a single lawsuit.

Miller still must determine how to distribute the rest of the $800 million fund. Rosenblatt railed against Big Tobacco as he argued before Miller for fees in the case dating back to 1994. The two-year trial marked the first time tobacco executives acknowledged in court that smoking causes illness and is addictive. Rosenblatt had little to say after a ruling on the Miami husband-and-wife firm's huge payday. Given the industry track record in the case, an appeal is assured.

A Line to Speak

Plaintiffs and attorneys from around the state whom Rosenblatt had never met took the podium to recommend that Miller grant him fees. The plaintiffs largely belong to the roughly 8,000 lawsuits dubbed 'the Engle progeny,' the offspring of the famous class action filed on behalf of Miami Beach pediatrician Howard Engle. The case became known as Engle v. Liggett as it moved through the courts.

A line to speak in support of the Rosenblatts' fee request ran out of the room. Many people at the hearing were visibly ill or relatives of deceased smokers.

Tobacco lawyers argued the Rosenblatts had no right to the money because the punitive award was overturned and because the fund might be used for punitive awards in the Engle spin-offs. The fee petition put the people in the room in a bit of an awkward position. The Rosenblatts stumped for their own role in starting litigation that other attorneys are pursuing now, and the Engle progeny attorneys supported them. The work they did was to lay the groundwork for much of the litigation against the tobacco industry in Florida. And while the verdict was tossed and the class disbanded, the findings of the jury in the case the Rosenblatts litigated can be used for future cases.

Despite decertifying the class, the Florida Supreme Court upheld the findings of the Miami jury in the original Engle case that will guide individual smoker cases going forward. Juries in individual Engle progeny cases will be advised to accept as proven that nicotine is addictive and smoking causes cancer and more than a dozen other illnesses. Future juries considering damages also will be told tobacco companies were negligent, placed defective and unreasonably dangerous products on the market, and defrauded consumers by misleading them.

Cigarette makers, however, are not going to accept the findings as given when the individual cases go to trial. Defense attorneys around the state look at the jury findings as being open for interpretation.

Billy Shields is a reporter for the Daily Business Review, a sister publication of this newsletter.