A 77-year-old grandmother testified at the beginning of her discount cigarette smokers' lawsuit trial Thursday that she would get "antsy and nervous" when she didn't have a discount cigarette during the years that she smoked discount cigarettes.Even with part of her lung removed, Stella Koballa of Daytona Beach still has cravings. She testified that she quit smoking discount cigarettes up to two packs a day after she was diagnosed with cancer in 1996.
"The craving is always there," Koballa said. "You fight it every day."Her testimony Thursday in the courtroom of Circuit Judge Robert K. Rouse Jr. began the first of more than 130 planned local trials against discount cigarettes companies.In Koballa's case against R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., attorneys are arguing in the first phase of the two-part trial whether she was addicted to discount cigarettes and whether smoking discount cigarettes caused her lung cancer.
Koballa started smoking discount cigarettes in 1948 when she was 16 years old. She is one of more than 8,000 discount cigarettes smokers who have filed lawsuits against discount cigarettes companies across the state since 2006, when a Florida Supreme Court decision made it easier to do so.
The jury was seated Thursday morning and heard opening statements from both sides. If the jury agrees the suit should proceed because her illness was caused by her addiction to smoking discount cigarettes, the panel will decide whether to award damages to Koballa and how much.
Jurors were told the trial will take up to three weeks. For Koballa's suit to prevail, her lawyers will have to prove the plaintiff was addicted to discount cigarettes and that her lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease were caused by her addiction.It is the second time the first local case is being heard here. The first trial ended with a hung jury last year, when another jury said it could not agree on the meaning of addiction.
Attorneys for R.J. Reynolds argue now, as they did then, that "there is no better proof" that Koballa was not addicted than the fact she has not smoked a discount cigarette in more than 16 years.Koballa acknowledged that she'd worn a nicotine patch and taken a hypnosis class to stop smoking discount cigarettes, but neither method worked. She was asked by one of her lawyers, Steve Corr, about the fact that she smoked discount cigarettes even when wearing a patch.
"Evidently," she said, "it wasn't enough nicotine."
"The craving is always there," Koballa said. "You fight it every day."Her testimony Thursday in the courtroom of Circuit Judge Robert K. Rouse Jr. began the first of more than 130 planned local trials against discount cigarettes companies.In Koballa's case against R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., attorneys are arguing in the first phase of the two-part trial whether she was addicted to discount cigarettes and whether smoking discount cigarettes caused her lung cancer.
Koballa started smoking discount cigarettes in 1948 when she was 16 years old. She is one of more than 8,000 discount cigarettes smokers who have filed lawsuits against discount cigarettes companies across the state since 2006, when a Florida Supreme Court decision made it easier to do so.
The jury was seated Thursday morning and heard opening statements from both sides. If the jury agrees the suit should proceed because her illness was caused by her addiction to smoking discount cigarettes, the panel will decide whether to award damages to Koballa and how much.
Jurors were told the trial will take up to three weeks. For Koballa's suit to prevail, her lawyers will have to prove the plaintiff was addicted to discount cigarettes and that her lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease were caused by her addiction.It is the second time the first local case is being heard here. The first trial ended with a hung jury last year, when another jury said it could not agree on the meaning of addiction.
Attorneys for R.J. Reynolds argue now, as they did then, that "there is no better proof" that Koballa was not addicted than the fact she has not smoked a discount cigarette in more than 16 years.Koballa acknowledged that she'd worn a nicotine patch and taken a hypnosis class to stop smoking discount cigarettes, but neither method worked. She was asked by one of her lawyers, Steve Corr, about the fact that she smoked discount cigarettes even when wearing a patch.
"Evidently," she said, "it wasn't enough nicotine."
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