Today in 1963 The Florida Supreme Court responded, in a 5-2 decision in the Green v. American Tobacco Company suit, with the opinion that cigarette companies are not liable for the deaths of cigarette consumers. However they did argue, for the first time, that cigarettes could be linked to lung cancer. The lawsuit was originally brought against the American Tobacco Company, makers of Lucky Strike cigarettes, by Miami resident Edwin Green in 1957. Green was diagnosed with lung cancer in the early 1950s, which he argued was caused by decades of smoking Lucky Strikes, and succumbed to the disease in 1958. His widow and brother continued the lawsuit, which was decided in favor of the defendant in 1963, based on existing Florida statutes regarding “implied warranty.” Soon after this case, a surgeon general’s commission found that cigarettes were linked to a number of respiratory diseases, and later Congress mandated warning labels be placed on all cigarette products.
~Florida Historical Society
~Florida Historical Society