Current Employment Position(s)

Partner

Lawyer Overview

Mark Belasic has represented clients in complex product liability actions in state and federal courts around the country. Since the 1980s, he has been part of the Firm's team representing R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company in scores of individual and class action cases. He also has represented clients in lawsuits in which industrial machinery, furnaces, and shop tools were alleged to be defective. These cases have involved a wide variety of product liability and intentional tort claims, including design and manufacturing defect, failure to warn, fraud, breach of warranty, consumer protection, and conspiracy claims.

Mark has many years of experience defending class action lawsuits in multiple state and federal jurisdictions. He has been the lead attorney or a principal attorney for R.J. Reynolds in more than 20 cases in which defendants defeated plaintiffs' attempts to certify a class.

Mark has substantial experience in defending medical monitoring claims. In particular, he was lead trial counsel for R.J. Reynolds in the Scott class action, which was the largest medical monitoring case ever tried. In Scott, plaintiffs sought a $10 billion medical monitoring fund to pay for many different diagnostic tests for cancer, heart disease, and respiratory ailments. The trial, in a New Orleans state court, lasted nearly three years from 2001 to 2004. In a complete victory on the medical monitoring claim, the jury found in defendants' favor on every medical test sought by plaintiffs. Defendants also won a defense verdict on each of plaintiffs' claims for product defect, with the jury finding that cigarettes were not a defective product. An appeal of the only claim won by plaintiffs (a smoking cessation claim) is still ongoing.

Mark was also lead counsel for R.J. Reynolds in Barnes v. American Tobacco Co., the first medical monitoring class action to reach a federal appellate court. In Barnes, defendants succeeded in having the trial court decertify the class and won summary judgment on a multibillion dollar medical monitoring claim, orders which were affirmed by the United States Third Circuit Court of Appeals. Mark also represented Reynolds in the landmark Castano litigation, in which the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals decertified a nationwide class action encompassing tens of millions of putative class members.

Most recently, Mark was lead trial counsel for R.J. Reynolds in Kimball, a wrongful death claim brought by the widower of a smoker who had died from lung cancer. Kimball was tried in federal court in Seattle in 2006. The jury took only one hour to deliberate and found for Reynolds on all claims. Mark was also trial counsel in Gilboy, a lung cancer claim in which Reynolds won a complete defense verdict in state court in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Areas of Practice

• Product Liability & Tort Litigation

Representative Cases

• Debbie Nichols v. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company
• McLaughlin v. American Tobacco Co., 522 F.3d 215 (2nd Cir. 2008)
• Philip R. Kimball, as Administrator of the Estate of Carla M. Kimball v. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., Case No. 03-0664 (W.D. Wa.)
• Schwab, et al. v. Philip Morris USA, Inc., et al.

West Practice Categories

Alcoholic Beverages, Apparel, Asbestos, Chemicals & Cosmetics, Firearms, Food & Agricultural Products, Machinery & Tools, Medical Products & Devices, Motor Vehicle Defects, Pharmaceutical Products, Products Liability Law, Recreational Products, Tobacco

Bar Admissions

• Ohio

Education

• Columbia University - New York

Address

North Point
901 Lakeside Avenue
Cleveland, OH 44114-1190

Phones

1.216.586.1043 (Business Phone)

Faxes

1.216.579.0212 (Business Fax)

Emails

Contact Us (Business Email)

Websites

http://www.jonesday.com