Donald A. LaBelle

Donald A. LaBelle in 1998 filed a lawsuit in North Carolina in 1998 against Brown & Williamson and Philip Morris alleging that the tobacco companies made cigarettes that were defective in design and this caused his wife, Christine, a smoker, to die prematurely of lung cancer in 1997 at the age of 40 after smoking the companies' defective cigarettes. LaBelle charged that a number of tobacco companies had developed designs that successfully removed harmful constituents from cigarette smoke, and that they had gone on to develop prototype cigarettes with reduced health effects, but that they never marketed these products. Instead, they kept them out of the marketplace to help support the argument that smoking may not cause cancer. LaBelle charged that the "addictive, carcinogenic and pathologic nature of Defendants' cigarettes was beyond the reasonable expectations of the youthful and inexperienced ordinary consumer." LaBelle also charged that the tobacco companies had conspired to generate a false controversy about the health effects of cigarettes.

Ms. LaBelle left behind an 8 year old son, and a family who had to pay for her medical bills, burial and funeral expense.

Testifying in the case were Jerry Frank Whidby, a retired Philip Morris chemist, and William Anthony Farone, an ex-Philip Morris scientist.