Smokeless tobacco user’s family awarded $5m

Steven Callahan, a spokesman for Altria, which acquired US Smokeless last year, said the company does not make any health claims about its products and supports programs and laws to reduce tobacco use by minors.

Mark Gottlieb, director of the Tobacco Products Liability Project at Northeastern University in Boston, said he believes it’s the first case of its kind and predicted more lawsuits involving smokeless tobacco.

“I think this is sort of a wake-up call to the plaintiff’s bar that there are a lot of victims of smokeless tobacco use out there, and it’s possible these cases can be successful,’’ he said.

Smokeless tobacco companies managed to fend off previous lawsuits.

In the past, lawyers focused more on cigarette makers because of stronger evidence to back up their claims, even though smokeless tobacco is harmful as well, Gottlieb said.

“So this is an unusual instance and runs counter to what had been the sort of the playbook for tobacco litigation,’’ Gottlieb said. The settlement shows that “perhaps there is a new strategy afoot in terms of dealing with some of these types of cases.’’

But, Gottlieb added, Altria may have simply wanted to resolve legal issues remaining from its acquisition and concluded it was cheaper to settle than risk a larger award at trial.

Ponvert said his case was bolstered by previously undisclosed letters from the 1980s that the company sent to minors thanking them for their business and sending them free samples.

The company even sent a can opener to one child to help open the chewing tobacco, he said.