Alaska News

Bethel court case against tobacco giant Philip Morris goes to the jury

BETHEL – A Bethel jury on Thursday will begin deliberating in the case of Dolores Hunter vs. Philip Morris USA over whether the tobacco giant's messages, advertisements or packaging tricked her life partner into smoking and hurt his efforts to quit.

Lawyers made their closing arguments Wednesday, a day later than planned, after one of Philip Morris' lawyers suffered a health issue and was medevaced to Anchorage. The trial in Bethel Superior Court was recessed Tuesday as a result. It has been going on about three weeks. Each side got 2 1/2 hours for closing arguments.

Hunter is suing on behalf of the estate of Benjamin Francis, her common-law husband. He died in 2004 of lung cancer at age 52 after a lifetime of smoking, including failed attempts to quit.

[Previous coverage: Actions of tobacco giant Philip Morris on trial in Bethel over death of lifelong smoker]

Lawyers for Hunter argue Philip Morris misled the public about the dangers of smoking for decades and the fraud reached all the way to the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta. Francis spent his early years in Pilot Station, then St. Marys before moving to the Yukon River village of Marshall.

Hunter and Francis' two sons, one of whom is just 18, are seeking damages — including punitive damages meant to punish Philip Morris and stop deceptive behavior.

"Whether this company will be deterred or punished is up to you," the lead lawyer for the family, Don Bauermeister, of Bremerton, Washington, told the jury Wednesday.

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Philip Morris' lead attorney, Stan Davis of Lawrence, Kansas, argued there wasn't evidence Francis had ever been exposed to comments by tobacco executives dismissing or questioning the health concerns.

Francis eventually settled on Marlboro Lights as his favored brand and the lawyers for his family contend the "light" label wrongly suggested a safer cigarette. The government eventually banned such packaging.

But Davis said public health advocates urged cigarette-makers to produce light and low-tar cigarettes before they concluded those products were no less harmful. And, he told jurors, the lawyers for Francis' family didn't prove he smoked lights because he thought they were better for him.

Some smoker might have been tricked, Davis said.

"It's not Ben Francis," he said.

Francis told people "I'll quit when I'm ready," Davis reminded the jury.

He said more than that, Roger Davidheiser, a Seattle attorney for Francis' family, told the jury as he wrapped up.

"The more I've tried, the harder it was," Francis told one of his sisters.

"Mr. Francis was hooked," Davidheiser told jurors. "He was hooked as a result of conspiracy. He was hooked as a result of Philip Morris' product. He was hooked as a result of the fraud Philip Morris perpetuated along with the other tobacco companies."

Lisa Demer

Lisa Demer was a longtime reporter for the Anchorage Daily News and Alaska Dispatch News. Among her many assignments, she spent three years based in Bethel as the newspaper's western Alaska correspondent. She left the ADN in 2018.

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