Living plaintiff creates rare case

Delray Beach man was diagnosed with bladder cancer 20 years ago.

WEST PALM BEACH — While Palm Beach County juries have considered nearly a dozen multimillion-dollar lawsuits against cigarette-makers in recent years, one now playing out in circuit court is unusual: The person hoping to punish tobacco companies is alive.

Ninety-four-year-old Delray Beach resident Robert Shulman has survived 20 years since he was diagnosed with bladder cancer, which his urologist blames on a pack-aday habit of more than three decades. More surprisingly, he survived long enough to watch his claims against cigarette giants R. J. Reynolds and Philip Morris USA play out in court.

In all of the other cases that have gone to trial here and most other judicial circuits in the state, the smokers died before their cases were taken before a jury. Their spouses or their children pursued the lawsuits that stem from a 1994 Miami-Dade County class-action lawsuit.

While a jury in 2000 awarded an estimated 100,000 smokers $145 billion in that 1994 lawsuit, which was filed

by Dr. Howard Engle, the Florida Supreme Court threw out the award. It ruled each smoker had to prove his or her unique damages at separate trials.

That spawned nearly 8,000 cases across the state, including scores in Palm Beach County. They are collectively known as the Engle progeny cases.

Shulman, the owner of a Boston, Mass.-based cleaning company, was 74 in 1995 when he was diagnosed with bladder cancer and had to have his bladder removed.

The tobacco companies have challenged whether his cancer was caused by smoking, pointing out that Shulman quit smoking 20 years before it was diagnosed. But Shulman’s urologist testified Monday that he was “confident” smoking was the culprit.

The trial is expected to last several weeks. Shul- man is seeking punitive damages, as well as money for pain and suffering.

Smokers and their families have prevailed in about 65 percent of the more than 100 cases that have gone to trial statewide, according to records. The largest award locally came last year when a jury awarded $20 million to 63-yearold Delray Beach resident Gwen Odom for a smoking-related illness that killed her 58-year-old mother in 1993.

While tobacco companies have appealed all unfavorable jury decisions, they have paid out at least $72 million in verdicts that have been upheld, according to their own records. Millions more in damages still are being reviewed by appellate courts.