Tobacco suits resume in Florida courts

MIAMI, Dec. 1 (UPI) -- A court in Broward County, Fla. is set to hear the first tobacco case since the state Supreme Court threw out a $145 billion class action settlement.

The case brought by the widow of locksmith Start Hess is the first of 8,000 filed in Florida after the huge damage award against tobacco firms was overturned in 2006, the Miami Herald reported Monday.

Lawyers for Hess's widow must prove that Hess was addicted to cigarettes and that the addiction caused his lung cancer.

Hess smoked up to 40 cigarettes a day for some 40 years and tried unsuccessfully to quit using a number of methods.

The Florida Supreme Court gave individual smokers until next January to sue cigarette manufacturers after it overturned the $145 billion award.

Since the Hess case is the first to go to trial, smokers and their lawyers are interested in the outcome, the newspaper says.

The case was scheduled to begin Monday but flooding in Broward County's main courthouse forced a postponement.