Third District Court of Appeal
State of Florida
Opinion filed October 19, 2016.
Not final until disposition of timely filed motion for rehearing.
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No. 3D15-1348
Lower Tribunal No. 07-44469
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Tina Russo, as Executor de son tort of the
Estate of Phyllis Frazier, deceased,
Appellant/Cross-Appellee,
vs.
Philip Morris USA, Inc., a Virginia corporation, and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco
Company, a North Carolina corporation,
Appellees/Cross-Appellants.
An Appeal from the Circuit Court for Miami-Dade County, Beatrice
Butchko, Judge.
Gerson & Schwartz, Edward S. Schwartz and Philip M. Gerson, for
appellant/cross-appellee.
Arnold & Porter, and Geoffrey J. Michael, (Washington, DC); Shook Hardy
& Bacon, L.L.P., and William P. Geraghty and Rachel A. Canfield, for
appellee/cross-appellant Philip Morris USA, Inc.; Jones Day, and Gregory G.
Katsas, (Washington, DC); Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice, and Geoffrey K.
Beach and Howell A. Burkhalter, (Winston-Salem, NC); Carlton Fields Jorden
Burt, and Jeffrey A. Cohen, for appellee/cross-appellant, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco
Company.
Before WELLS and LOGUE, JJ., and LEVY, Senior Judge.
WELLS, J.
The estate of a tobacco plaintiff appeals a final judgment in the defendant
tobacco companies’ favor, wherein the estate maintained an addiction to cigarettes
containing nicotine was a legal cause of plaintiff’s disease and death. Finding no
merit to the claims of error raised, we affirm the final judgment and therefore find
no need to and do not, address the tobacco company’s cross-appeal.
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