Judge: Jury Instructions on ‘Addiction’ Needed in Engle-Progeny Tobacco Cases

A judge’s obligation to instruct a jury “fully and accurately on the pertinent substantive law” in Engle-progeny tobacco cases includes defining the word “addiction,” a senior federal trial judge said recently (Berger v. Philip Morris USA, 2014 BL 313179, M.D. Fla., 3:09-CV-14157, 11/5/14).

Senior U.S. District Judge James G. Carr of the Northern District of Ohio, sitting by designation in the Middle District of Florida, confirmed Nov. 5 in Berger v. Philip Morris USA previously sustained party objections to his proposed and final jury instructions on “addiction.”

But Carr also said he wanted to “put lawyers ...