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• Backgrounder: ROSEN v. B&W 

The Plaintiffs are Selma and Meyer Rosen, husband and wife. The Plaintiffs filed this action on June 24, 1997, in the Supreme Court of New York for Nassau County, alleging that Mrs. Rosen smoked cigarettes manufactured by The American Tobacco Company from 1955-1959 and that as a result she became addicted to cigarette smoking and developed lung cancer in 1995.

Selma Rosen was born on February 5, 1944, to Arthur and Rose Schwartz in Bronx, N.Y. . . .

Justice Ute Wolfe Lally of the New York Supreme Court for Nassau County is the trial judge. . . .

Jury selection is scheduled to begin June 1, 2005. The parties expect the trial to last four to six weeks. . . .

Plaintiff Selma Rosen alleges that American failed to warn her of the health risks of smoking and designed an unreasonably dangerous product. Mrs. Rosen claims that she smoked Lucky Strike cigarettes, manufactured by American, for approximately four years in the late 1950s, beginning in 1955 when she was eleven years old. She further claims that at age eleven, as a result of smoking American's cigarettes, she became "addicted" to tobacco. After 1959, Mrs. Rosen never smoked another cigarette manufactured by American; rather, for the next 36 years, with the exception of times when she quit smoking, including a six-year period from 1983-1989, during which she did not smoke a single cigarette, she smoked cigarettes manufactured by other tobacco companies that are not named as defendants in this action. Mrs. Rosen was diagnosed with lung cancer in October 1995

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Indiana Supreme Court Upholds Rogers Verdict; Court Rules 

The Indiana Supreme Court today affirmed a 1996 jury verdict in favor of Philip Morris and three other companies, ruling that the trial judge's contact with the jury during its deliberation had no effect on the trial's outcome.

The plaintiff, Yvonne Rogers, argued that the trial judge should have notified the parties before responding to a question from the jury. Rogers maintained that the judge's one-word answer of "yes" to a jury query about whether they could hold a press conference after the verdict was announced required reversal of the jury's verdict. The Supreme Court noted that, after their question was answered, the jurors continued to deliberate for more than seven hours.

The verdict was returned in August 1996. An earlier trial, in 1995, ended with the jury unable to reach a unanimous verdict.

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• Philip Morris says Indiana court upholds 1996 verdict 

Tobacco giant Philip Morris Cos Inc. Wednesday said the Indiana Supreme Court affirmed a 1996 jury verdict in favor of it and three other companies, ruling that the trial judge's contact with the jury during deliberation had no effect on the trial's outcome.

The suit, filed by the family of Richard Rogers, an Indianapolis lawyer who died at age 52 in 1987, sought unspecified damages. The family contended that the tobacco industry peddled an addictive product that caused Rogers' cancer.

Philip Morris, the world's largest tobacco company with the leading Marlboro brand, said plaintiff Yvonne Rogers argued that the judge should have notified the parties before responding to a question from the jury.

Rogers maintained that the judge's "yes" to a jury query about whether they could hold a press conference after the verdict was announced should have constituted a reversal of the jury's verdict, New York-based Philip Morris said.

Philip Morris said the court noted that the jurors continued to deliberate for more than seven hours after their question about the press conference was answered.

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