Widdick v. Brown & Williamson
"The Tobacco Conspiracy Trial"
Deceased Smoker's Widow Testifies and Sparks Questions About Credibility
(May 15) On the one-year anniversary of his death, the widow of the late Roland Maddox tearfully testified that her husband was addicted to smoking cigarettes and despite various attempts, could not stop.
Margaret Maddox told the court how she and Roland (whom she liked to call "Eddie") met while he was overseas serving in the army. She said that she and Roland used to get cigarettes free from the army base and that he started smoking Lucky Strike cigarettes in 1949. (Mrs. Maddox was also a smoker back then and actually introduced Roland to Lucky Strike, the brand of cigarettes she smoked.) According to Mrs. Maddox, Roland would receive a carton of unfiltered Lucky Strike cigarettes every Christmas. She never saw him smoke any other brand, and Roland would smoke between one-and-a-half and two packs a day.
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Margaret Maddox: The widow of Roland Maddox who testified that she and her husband were never aware of smoking's health risks. |
The tearful Mrs. Maddox said that Roland smoked until just before his diagnosis of cancer in July 1996. (She had stopped in 1963 because she experienced a goiter condition, which is an inflammation of a gland in the throat. Mrs. Maddox claimed that her doctor recommended that she stop smoking, but never attributed her condition to smoking. He even had a cigarette in his hand when he told her that she had to avoid smoke because it would hinder her ability to breathe.)
Roland, said his widow, tried to stop smoking several times after she quit the habit by using several methods from the patch to gum. But nothing worked, and Roland could not stop smoking for more than three days at a time. According to Mrs. Maddox, her husband would seem nervous and "not quite himself" whenever he tried to stop smoking.
Throughout those 50 years of smoking, the witness said, she said that she and Roland were never aware of any reports or warnings from Brown & Williamson or other tobacco companies about the health risks of smoking. Mrs. Maddox claimed that Roland never brought up the topic. She recalled how Roland would point out an advertisement for Lucky Strike that depicted a man and a woman sitting at a fireplace with cigarettes in hand.
"He [Roland] would say 'There's you and me. They got my stogies,'" Mrs. Maddox said.
Mrs. Maddox told the jurors that Roland was shocked when he was diagnosed with cancer. In the months leading up to his diagnosis, he had experienced severe coughing and weezing. Mrs. Maddox thought Roland was only suffering from a cold, or at most, bronchitis. She also said that her husband often lied to doctors when he told them that he had quit smoking. Roland, she said, was too ashamed to admit that he could not quit.
Brown & Williamson attorney Ed Browning tried to deflate Mrs. Maddox's credibility during cross-examination. Browning seemed incredulous when the witness continued to insist that she and Roland were never remotely aware of any reports, ads, or warnings of any kind about the health risks of smoking. Browning was trying to question Roland's motives for attempting to stop smoking; essentially he was asking Mrs. Maddox why Roland would attempt to quit smoking several times if he was not at least aware of smoking's hazards. And the witness also insisted that even when Roland suffered from bronchial disease in 1992, doctors never discussed his smoking habit. And Mrs. Maddox's testimony about her husband lying to his doctors about his habit also appeared to damage her credibility.
Before Maddox took the stand, the 1959 deposition of Dr. Ernst Wynder was read to the jury. Dr. Wynder testified about how he had painted the backs of mice with cigarette tar and smoke, which subsequently caused the development of tumors on the mice. According to the doctor in this suit against the American Tobacco Company, smoking is a cause of lung cancer. The jury also reviewed several cigarette ads and tobacco company documents about the effects of smoking.
Testimony in the trial will resume Monday morning.
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