On May 23, 2016, the wife and children of former MLB player Tony Gwynn brought a wrongful death suit against a tobacco company for manipulating Gwynn into an addiction that eventually took his life.
The lawsuit was filed in a California court against Altria Group, Inc., the parent company of Philip Morris USA and U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Company. The complaint alleges that the company got the baseball hall of famer addicted to smokeless tobacco and used him and his addiction as a promotional agent for “dip.”
Gwynn passed away in 2014 from salivary gland cancer; he was only 54-years-old. According to the complaint, Gwynn’s addiction began in college when he received free samples of “dip” from Altria Group. Although the baseball all-star started with only free samples, he moved onto using as much as two cans of dip on a daily basis — the equivalent of four to five packs of cigarettes.
Gwynn was about 17-years-old when he received the free samples and he used throughout his entire 20-year baseball career. Due to his intense using habits, he was pictured or shown on television with “distinctive dip visible in his lower right cheek and a distinctive round can of dip visible in his back pocket.” The complaint says Gwynn “always dipped on the right side of his mouth,” and the cancer that killed Gwynn was located in a right gland — directly linked to the area where he placed dip.
The complaint alleges that Gwynn’s apparent “dip” use in pictures and on TV made the tobacco company’s “marketing dream come true.” The family claims the tobacco company “could not have asked for better publicity,” it knew that having such a likeable person like Gwynn photographed with “dip” would encourage the public, especially young kids, to use smokeless tobacco. Ultimately, Gwynn’s family alleges that these promotional and marketing techniques turned Gwynn into a promoter for which Altria Group received all the benefit.
The complaint further alleges that Altria Group knew of the dangers of smokeless tobacco and not only encouraged its use, but also denied the dangers and addictive nature of the product. The family points out that the tobacco company is now required put oral cancer warnings on its products; however, no labels appeared on the samples Gwynn received during his teenage years.
Thus, while Gwynn’s family seeks “justice for their untimely loss,” the tobacco company is left to defend itself from claims of negligence, product liability, negligent misrepresentation, and fraudulent concealment.