Landmark lawsuit pitted Davids against Goliaths

MIAMI (Reuter) In the landmark Broin secondhandsmoke lawsuit settled
Friday in a $350 million deal, a husbandandwife lawyer team took on a
host of top lawyers for the tobacco industry before a judge who began his
career as a radio announcer.

Here are thumbnail sketches of key players in the Broin vs. Philip Morris
Cos. Inc. et al. case.

The lead plaintiff, American Airlines flight attendant Norma Broin, 42,
is a political conservative and Mormon who has never smoked. She decided to
take on the tobacco industry after contracting cancer, now in remission,
that forced removal of part of her lung.

Broin, a mother of two who is married to a Marine, blamed her disease on
cigarette smoke inhaled on airliners during the years before smoking was
banned on most U.S. flights. She called the difficult decision to file the
lawsuit a moral one. After her victory, she said: ``The whole purpose was
to educate people that secondhand smoke is injurious, not just to flight
attendants but to everybody.''

Plaintiffs' attorneys Stanley and Susan Rosenblatt cast themselves as
David to the tobacco industry's Goliath, likening their cases against
cigarette makers to a moral crusade. The Rosenblatts' small practice was
built on personalinjury cases before Norma Broin came into their lives six
years ago. They financed the case out of their own pockets but under the
agreement are to receive $46 million. Susan Rosenblatt said that before the
case they had agreed to give 25 percent of any fee award to charity.

The Rosenblatts describe themselves as the ideal legal tag team, with
Stanley, 60, the pugnacious litigator and Susan, 46, the patient scholar,
writer and researcher. Orthodox Jews who have nine children, the couple
does not work on Saturdays.

The tobacco attorneys included Hugh Whiting of the Cleveland law firm
Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue for R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., David Hardy, a
partner at Shook, Hardy & Bacon of Kansas City, cocounsel for Lorillard
Inc. and Philip Morris; and Edward Moss, senior partner at Miami's Anderson
Moss Sherouse & Petros, cocounsel for Brown & Williamson Tobacco Co.

Circuit Judge Robert Kaye, 68, presided over the biggest case of his
career in a courteous if sometimes brusque manner. He started out as a
radio announcer but got his draft notice the same day he got what he called
his ``big break,'' the offer of an announcing job at NBC. He attended the
University of Miami Law School under the GI Bill, graduating in 1957 with a
Juris Doctor degree but not practicing law for 13 years. Instead, he
contined in radio at several local stations.

He went to work for State Attorney Richard Gerstein in 1970, working his
way up to chief of the Major Crimes Division over 12 years. He was
appointed circuit judge in 1981.

``I was as surpised as you are at this momemt ... when they told me there
was some resolution of this matter,'' he told the jury Friday morning.

``If it's a disappointment that you don't have to make a decision, I'm
sorry. If it's a blessing, I'll take credit.''