Saturday, September 14, 1996

Wife of 'Marlboro Man' suing tobacco companies

By Associated Press

MARSHALL (AP) - The wife of an actor who appeared for years as the "Marlboro Man" and died last year from lung cancer is suing Philip Morris Company and other tobacco giants.

Lilo McLean, wife of David McLean, names Philip Morris, which makes Marlboro cigarettes, along with Liggett Group, R.J. Reynolds, the American Tobacco Company and Brown and Williamson in her federal lawsuit. The claim seeks unspecified damages.

David McLean, who appeared for many years in television commercial and print ads as the Marlboro Man, died of lung cancer in Los Angeles last October. He was 73.

His widow's lawsuit was filed Aug. 30 in the Marshall court of U.S. District Judge David Folsom but eluded public notice until the Marshall News Messenger obtained a copy of the lawsuit this week.

Michael York, a Washington, D.C., lawyer representing Philip Morris, said the company is prepared to defend itself.

"I have not seen his actual allegations. I can tell you Philip Morris has defended smoking health claims for more than 40 years - all successfully," he said.

Jack Baldwin, the Marshall attorney representing Mrs. McLean, said Thursday night that his client, who still lives in California, instructed him not to comment on specifics of the case.

Baldwin said the case was filed in East Texas because it would have a better chance there of getting to trial quickly. At any rate, he said, trial was at least 18 months away.

Mrs. McLean's lawsuit alleges that every cigarette maker in the United States conspired to hide facts regarding the addictive nature of nicotine. She says her husband suffered from emphysema in the late 1980s because of his nicotine addiction and later was stricken with lung cancer.

David McLean began his role as the rugged Marlboro pitchman in the early 1960s, shortly before the U.S. Surgeon General's 1964 order that cigarettes be labeled with health warnings.

By the time the labels warning that the product "might be dangerous to your health" were printed, he had been smoking for more than 30 years.

Said York, Philip Morris' attorney: "He's right about one thing. For more than 30 years there have been warning labels written by Congress on cigarette packs. And certainly that is something that juries take into account."

The lawsuit claims that David McLean sometimes smoked five packs of cigarettes while posing for a single commercial.

Judge Folsom also is presiding over the state's lawsuit against the tobacco companies. That case claims the industry violated federal racketeering laws, committed wire and mail fraud and violated state antitrust laws and public nuisance statutes.

Attorney General Dan Morales seeks to recoup $4 billion in Medicaid funds spent since 1980 to treat Texans with smoking-related illnesses.