The fallout of Engle v. Liggett Group Inc. pervades so much of tobacco-related litigation in Florida that it can be hard to conceive of a courtroom proceeding where the case’s findings aren’t taken as a given.

But this is the reality seasoned Miami tobacco attorney Randy Rosenblum found himself facing in Massachusetts’ Middlesex County Superior Court while representing family members of a smoker who died of cancer.

The Dolan Dobrinsky Rosenblum partner worked alongside Gordon & Partners litigators Gary Paige and Cassandra Lombard and Andrew Rainer and Meredith Lever ⁠— attorneys with the Boston-based Public Health Advocacy Institute — to argue R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. was liable for the February 2016 death of Massachusetts native Pamela Coyne.

A lifelong tobacco user who started smoking at age 10, Coyne died after the lung cancer she’d been diagnosed with in 2015 metastasized to her liver, spine and brain.

Although her family’s legal team was able to procure a nearly $17.6 million jury verdict against the tobacco companies for Coyne’s estate, the case’s conclusion did not come about easily.

Rosenblum noted in Florida’s Engle progeny cases, there are “certain findings” made by the original trial’s jury that are held to be binding in all subsequent cases. However, plaintiffs pursuing legal action against tobacco companies in Massachusetts do not enjoy the same luxury of pre-established findings and arguments.

“In Florida in an Engle case, we do not have to probe there’s a reasonable alternative safer design [for cigarettes],” Rosenblum said. “In Massachusetts, we do have to prove that.”

The attorney, who was brought onto the case by his Boston co-counsel,  said the necessary adjustment in strategy was something of a challenge for a litigator well-versed in the ins and outs of Engle progeny litigation. The plaintiff brought a breach of warranty claim against R.J. Reynolds in addition to accusing the company of negligence and conspiracy.

Read the verdict slip:

Rosenblum said the breach-of-warranty claim was effectively a charge of product liability against R.J. Reynolds. The litigator said it was up to him and his co-counsel to “prove that there were essentially two main defects in cigarettes.”

“The first defect is they’re inhalable and they’re inhalable by design,” Rosenblum said, “That’s the first problem with inhalability: It promotes addiction because by inhaling the cigarette smoke and the nicotine, that’s the fastest way for the nicotine to reach your bloodstream and brain. You could make cigarettes non-inhalable.”

The plaitiff also argued R.J. Reynolds knowingly engineers their products to be addictive and harmful. Rosenblum contended cigarettes could be manufactured with nonaddictive levels of nicotine and noted the defendant has safer product designs at their disposal.

“In the 1980s Reynolds designed two heat-not-burn products,” Rosenblum said. The attorney noted the alternate means of combustion and nicotine consumption transmitted less carcinogens to users such as Coyne. “We used that to show Reynolds was capable of manufacturing cigarettes with fewer carcinogens as a reasonable safer alternative design.”

Coyne purportedly tried to quit smoking many times over the years, going so far as to employ the use of hypnosis, Nicorette gum, a nicotine patch,  Chantix, going ‘cold turkey’ and other strategies in order to bring an end to her cigarette consumption. Rosenblum singled out Coyne’s use of filtered cigarettes as a sign she was receptive to misleading ad campaigns organized by R.J. Reynolds and other tobacco companies.

“She actually chose the cigarettes she smoked, Winston cigarettes, because she believed the filters were safer for her,” Rosenblum said. “Later in life she switched to Winston Lights and told her husband that the lights were better for her. She received the message the tobacco company sent that filters and lights were better for you.”

Rosenblum said the argument Coyne’s addiction to cigarettes was aided and abetted by R.J. Reynolds’ advertising was supported by testimony from Dr. Kenneth M. Cummings, a professor with the Medical University of South Carolina.

“The reason that testimony was so important was because one of the things we had to prove was that even if the companies did enter into a conspiracy, we had to prove she relied on this conspiracy and fraud to her detriment,” the attorney said. “She was relying on their conspiratorial acts. The messages made her way to her and caused her to make her decisions such switching to light cigarettes.”

R.J. Reynolds was represented by Jones Day attorneys John Walker, Frank Bayuk and Christopher Morrison. No one from the defense responded to requests for comment by press time.

The defense entered a motion for summary judgment, which was denied by the judge. It also argued that because cigarettes are known to be inherently dangerous, Coyne was wholly responsible for her own consumption, and there was no reasonable alternative safe design.

Speaking on the sizable verdict, Rosenblum conceded it was not as large of an award as he and his co-counsel had sought from the jury.

“In our closing arguments we asked the jury for $7 [million] to $9 million for each of the children and the husband,” the attorney said, noting Coyne had four children.

The jury ultimately opted to award for Coyne’s own pain and suffering, as well as that of her children and husband, totaling more than $6 million in compensatory damages.

Rosenblum added, “On the punitive damages, the jury awarded us $11 million and change.” Although they had asked for a larger number in punitive damages as well, the plaintiff’s legal team and their client wound up thrilled with the case’s ultimate outcome.

“We chose wisely. They were great,” Rosenblum said of his co-counsel and their assistance with providing legal guidance in an unfamiliar jurisdiction. “It was definitely challenging, and I think part of what helped us was our co-counsel, Andrew Rainer and Meredith Lever, were invaluable in helping us in Massachusetts Law issues. We needed boots on the ground, lawyers in Massachusetts who understood the laws as they pertained to these claims.”

Rosenblum said the case represented the first time a Florida-based trial team prevailed in litigation against a tobacco company in Massachusetts.

“It definitely sharpened our skills,” Rosenblum said of the distinction between arguing tobacco cases in Massachusetts as opposed to Florida. “We were forced to work out issues and prove our facts in a little bit of a different way.”

Case: James Coyne, for the Estate of Pamela Coyne vs. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company Inc.

Case No.: 2016-266

Description: Product Liability, Conspiracy

Filing date: June 30, 2016

Verdict date: May 31, 2019

Judge: Justice of the Superior Court, Middlesex County, Judge Joshua I. Wall

Plaintiffs attorneys: Randy Rosenblum, Dolan Dobrinsky Rosenblum, Miami; Gary Paige and Cassandra Lombard, Gordon & Partners, Davie; Andrew Rainer and Meredith Lever, Public Health Advocacy Institute, Boston

Defense attorneys: John Walker, Frank Bayuk and Christopher Morrison, Jones Day, Atlanta and Boston

Verdict amount: $17,589,233, including $6,314,233 in compensatory damages and $11,275,000 in punitive damages