Mildred Wiley v. R.J.R. Nabisco et. al.

In 1991 Mildred Wiley died of lung cancer at the age of 56 after having worked as a nurse at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Marion, IN since 1973. She had been a non-smoker all her life but upon her death her husband, Philip E. Wiley filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the tobacco industry's top companies. He alleged that his wife's lung cancer was the direct result of her exposure to secondhand smoke at the Veteran's Administration, which allowed its patients and staff to smoke inside its hospitals. Lawyers for Wiley argued the tobacco companies are responsible for Mrs. Wiley's death because they repeatedly attempted to cover-up the negative affects of second hand smoke and lobbied the Veterans Administration to allow smoking inside the hospitals. In March of 1998 a jury of six unanimously found the tobacco companies not liable for Wiley's death.