Tony Gwynn’s adult children said Tuesday, one day after they filed a lawsuit against makers of smokeless tobacco that blames the product for causing his death from cancer in 2014, that they wanted the industry to be held accountable.
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“The tobacco companies were using his addiction to turn him into their ultimate walking billboard”, former major leaguer Tony Gwynn Jr. said, via the New York Times, of his father’s addiction.
Gwynn, who played for the San Diego Padres, was diagnosed with salivary gland cancer in 2010 and died four years later. The tobacco companies got the benefit of this “priceless advertising” without paying him, and did not post health warnings on snuff cans until 1987, well after he was addicted, his family says in the complaint. Despite chewing tobacco being ingrained into baseballs culture about as much as a seventh inning stretch, 2016 happened to be the first year ever, that chewing tobacco was prohibited in ballparks which included Fenway and Dodgers Stadium, with more teams to follow suit as the year progresses.
Gwynn’s family alleges the tobacco industry is partially responsible for his death. The suit said the industry was undergoing a determined effort at the time to market its products to African-Americans, and that Gwynn was a “marketing dream come true” for the defendants. Rather, attorney David S. Casey wants the jury to hear the case and decide for itself what would be a proper punishment.
The suit was filed in Superior Court in San Diego on Monday. The brief maintains, “Defendants manipulated Tony by getting him addicted to their tobacco products”.
The lawsuit, filed Monday in Superior Court in San Diego, California, alleges negligence, product liability and fraud for selling a product Altria knew was unsafe and failing to warn users. “But he suffered such facial nerve damage to the right side of his face from the tumor, that it prevented him from smiling or even closing his right eyelid”, his family says in the lawsuit. LLC – due to Gwynn’s death from oral cancer in 2014.
A spokesman for Altria did not respond to a request for comment on the suit.
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Prior to the begining of the 2016 season, Chicago and NY passed laws that ban smokeless tobacco at major league ballparks.
