Pubdate: Mon, 13 Oct 1997
Source: Houston Chronicle
Page: 1 
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Website: http://www.chron.com/

His huffs enough for her puffs

Wife quits smoking so spouse drops suit

By DIRK JOHNSON 
New York Times

CHICAGO  For more than 20 years, Richard Thomas had begged and pleaded
with his wife to stop smoking. Nothing worked.

So he sued her.

Thomas, 69, himself an exsmoker, went to U.S. District Court here in
August, claiming that cigarette smoke from his 65yearold wife, Sally,
violated the Clean Air Act.

In requesting an injunction to make her stop smoking, Thomas, a retired
Army colonel, said he wanted the government "to protect me against having
to grow old alone, to protect me against the loss of the love and support
and companionship of the woman I love."

Sally Thomas was mortified. She had been smoking for 50 years. Now she had
to contend with the publicity of her husband's heartrending plea.

Camera trucks and crews for tabloid television shows camped outside her
house. A local television reporter tracked her down on the beach. If ever
she needed a cigarette, this was the time.

"She was very angry," said Christopher Helt, the lawyer who brought the
suit. "I think she was making cold soup for dinner."

Richard Thomas, who at 17 was a paratrooper in Europe during World War II,
had tried for years to persuade Helt to take the suit. The lawyer had
declined, saying it was frivolous.

But after the Environmental Protection Agency declared secondhand cigarette
smoke to be a cancercausing pollutant, Helt decided the case might have a
chance.

The suit aroused some antigovernment sentiment. Richard Thomas' car was
vandalized and scratched with the words, "Stop trampling on our
constitutional rights."

But Thomas stuck to his legal guns. He told the court that his mother, a
heavy smoker, had died of heart disease. His father, who also smoked
heavily, suffered a stroke that left him bedridden for "seven horrible
years, unable at the end to even hear me tell him I loved him."

Last week, before a decision had been made on the injunction, Thomas
returned to federal court.

"My wife has agreed to stop smoking," he told Judge James Zagel, who was
visibly moved. "Nothing in the world could delight me more."

He continued: "As you know, my primary motivation in bringing this suit
against her was my fear that this beautiful, lively woman's nicotine
addiction would eventually lead to her premature incapacitation or even
death."

He asked that the suit be withdrawn.

Without commenting on the merits of the case, Zagel granted the dismissal.

Outside the courtroom, Sally Thomas talked briefly with reporters, telling
them that she had recently been reunited with three old friends, women who
had been heavy smokers, now suffering the debilitating effects of emphysema.

"It's just scary seeing friends who can't walk upstairs," she said. "They
had trouble breathing and getting around."

In September, Sally Thomas entered an addiction treatment center in
suburban Evanston, and vowed to give up cigarettes for good.

The colonel, looking radiant after the court appearance, told reporters
that he believed his wife has conquered the tobacco demon for good.

"Best of all, she no longer coughs in bed for five minutes, which frankly
scared the devil out of me," he said. "She's an exsmoker now. I truly
believe she will remain one."

As they left the courthouse, Thomas and his wife were holding hands. There
was one thing, Thomas conceded, that he had not shared with the judge.

"I didn't mention her kisses were sweeter," he said.