Plaintiff's husband: Verdict is my wife's legacy

Ralph Della Vecchia's wife, Angie, died halfway through the trial. "She would be ecstatic,'' he says.

By TAMARA LUSH

© St. Petersburg Times, published July 15, 2000

As the jury ordered the tobacco industry to pay $145-billion to sick Florida smokers, Ralph Della Vecchia cried, then he thought of his wife.

"I know Angie will be very pleased," he said. "She's looking down on us."

Angie died on July 25, 1999, the victim of 40 years of smoking. The New Port Richey woman's lung cancer spread to her brain, then the rest of her body.

But in her husband's eyes, she left a legacy for hundreds of thousands of smokers.

"She would be ecstatic," said Della Vecchia. "Just the thought that we won -- it was a very emotional time."

Angie Della Vecchia, who died when she was 53, was one of three named plaintiffs in the lawsuit to represent as many as 700,000 sick Floridians. She died halfway through the two-year trial. The other two, Mary Farnan of Inglis and Frank Amodeo of Orlando, are still alive.

Della Vecchia, 64, doesn't know if he or the two children will ever see any of the billions of dollars in compensatory or punitive damages.

He realizes that a lengthy appeal lies ahead and that the tobacco companies will fight the verdict.

"They lost and they're sore about it," said Della Vecchia, just after the verdict was announced. "They lied and cheated in the beginning, and they lied and cheated now. I hope the appellate court backs up Judge (Robert) Kaye."

Farnan, a nurse who developed lung and brain cancer after smoking for 29 years, said she was overjoyed by the verdict.

"Hundreds and thousands of people are going to be impacted by this," she said. "This will show people in the U.S. just how bad the tobacco industry is."

Last July, the jury believed the plaintiffs' claims that five cigarette companies and two industry groups conspired to produce an addictive, dangerous product that causes dozens of illnesses. In April, the jury ordered the tobacco companies to pay $12.7-million in compensatory damages to Della Vecchia, Farnan and Amodeo.

For Della Vecchia and Farnan, the end of the trial means they can return home to their families and not trek to South Florida every week.

It also means they won't have to sit through hours of often painful testimony -- Della Vecchia himself took the stand about his wife's inability to quit smoking. A tobacco industry attorney grilled Della Vecchia on his wife's attempts to quit, portraying her effort as "halfhearted."

Della Vecchia testified that he quit smoking in 1977 after suffering from angina but that his wife was unable to stop.

During the trial, Della Vecchia stayed at a Miami hotel and flew home on the weekends.

When in New Port Richey, he has tried to spend time with his children and grandchildren and get back to the other love of his life: bowling.

But life, he said, hasn't been the same without his wife of 30 years.

"I never expected my wife to die," said Della Vecchia. "She was just too young."

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