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CWA Member Helps Hand Down Landmark Tobacco Verdict
John Mestre’s daughter was 2 years old when he was summoned for jury duty on a case that would end in the largest punitive damage award ever against the tobacco industry — $145 billion.
By the time he finished the landmark trial, his daughter was 4.
“In hindsight, now that things are back to normal, I’m glad I did it,” said Mestre, a member of CWA Local 3121 in Hialeah, Fla., near Miami. “I learned so much. I was bombarded with information in an array of subjects from agronomy to oncology.”
Mestre, a service technician with Bell South for 20 years, was one of just six jurors chosen — from a pool of 2,000 people — to hear the class-action suit brought in state court in Florida on behalf of 700,000 sick smokers.
Mestre was a smoker himself who had pledged in a New Year’s Resolution in 1998, the year the trial began, to give up his habit. Long before the trial ended, he had heard enough about the ills of tobacco to commit to stop smoking. He said he hasn’t bought any cigarettes since his birthday in June.
“I was offended, disappointed, when I saw the documents that showed how much they knew about tobacco that they weren’t telling smokers,” he said.
He was stunned to read internal memos admitted as evidence in which tobacco executives plainly acknowledged the harmful effects of tobacco. The four-man, two-woman jury — including two former smokers and three who had never smoked — also was swayed by a company official who broke ranks with the rest of the industry, providing damaging testimony.
They were further dismayed by the tobacco industry’s refusal to put on testimony about its net worth during the punitive damages stage of the trial. In determining the companies’ financial health, the jury heard only from two expert witnesses for the plaintiffs. One of them put the value at about $300 billion. Mestre said the jury essentially cut the figure in half to come up with its verdict — an award that is expected to be tied up in appeals for years.
“There’s no question we wanted to send a message,” Mestre said. “It was unanimous. We wanted to err on the high side, as opposed to a slap on the wrist, which would have been a slap in the face of the plaintiffs.”
How the jury came up with the sum was the most-asked question after the trial when Mestre appeared on the NBC Today Show, the CBS Morning Show, CNN Early Edition and Nightline. Though he can still talk about the trial in vivid detail — and with great enthusiasm — he wishes the judge had let him keep the copious notes he scribbled for nearly two years.
The judge told jurors at the outset that the trial would last four to six months. As it wore on much longer, Mestre said Bell South remained supportive. He was paid his regular salary, as his union contract requires, and the company let him work Saturdays and holidays to make up for some of the lost overtime he wasn’t earning. Occasionally, the trial would recess for a week or two, and he’d go back to work.
While the trial was an education in law, medicine and the tobacco industry, it also renewed Mestre’s appreciation for unions. Since then, he’s thought about running for a local office, but, right now, he’s concentrating on catching up on lost time with his family. He has a grown daughter who just graduated from college, in addition to his 4-year-old.
“I saw how corporate America uses people, its workers and consumers,” he said. “The tobacco industry — they were using their workers as guinea pigs. We need unions, I’m telling you. We need unions.”
By the time he finished the landmark trial, his daughter was 4.
“In hindsight, now that things are back to normal, I’m glad I did it,” said Mestre, a member of CWA Local 3121 in Hialeah, Fla., near Miami. “I learned so much. I was bombarded with information in an array of subjects from agronomy to oncology.”
Mestre, a service technician with Bell South for 20 years, was one of just six jurors chosen — from a pool of 2,000 people — to hear the class-action suit brought in state court in Florida on behalf of 700,000 sick smokers.
Mestre was a smoker himself who had pledged in a New Year’s Resolution in 1998, the year the trial began, to give up his habit. Long before the trial ended, he had heard enough about the ills of tobacco to commit to stop smoking. He said he hasn’t bought any cigarettes since his birthday in June.
“I was offended, disappointed, when I saw the documents that showed how much they knew about tobacco that they weren’t telling smokers,” he said.
He was stunned to read internal memos admitted as evidence in which tobacco executives plainly acknowledged the harmful effects of tobacco. The four-man, two-woman jury — including two former smokers and three who had never smoked — also was swayed by a company official who broke ranks with the rest of the industry, providing damaging testimony.
They were further dismayed by the tobacco industry’s refusal to put on testimony about its net worth during the punitive damages stage of the trial. In determining the companies’ financial health, the jury heard only from two expert witnesses for the plaintiffs. One of them put the value at about $300 billion. Mestre said the jury essentially cut the figure in half to come up with its verdict — an award that is expected to be tied up in appeals for years.
“There’s no question we wanted to send a message,” Mestre said. “It was unanimous. We wanted to err on the high side, as opposed to a slap on the wrist, which would have been a slap in the face of the plaintiffs.”
How the jury came up with the sum was the most-asked question after the trial when Mestre appeared on the NBC Today Show, the CBS Morning Show, CNN Early Edition and Nightline. Though he can still talk about the trial in vivid detail — and with great enthusiasm — he wishes the judge had let him keep the copious notes he scribbled for nearly two years.
The judge told jurors at the outset that the trial would last four to six months. As it wore on much longer, Mestre said Bell South remained supportive. He was paid his regular salary, as his union contract requires, and the company let him work Saturdays and holidays to make up for some of the lost overtime he wasn’t earning. Occasionally, the trial would recess for a week or two, and he’d go back to work.
While the trial was an education in law, medicine and the tobacco industry, it also renewed Mestre’s appreciation for unions. Since then, he’s thought about running for a local office, but, right now, he’s concentrating on catching up on lost time with his family. He has a grown daughter who just graduated from college, in addition to his 4-year-old.
“I saw how corporate America uses people, its workers and consumers,” he said. “The tobacco industry — they were using their workers as guinea pigs. We need unions, I’m telling you. We need unions.”