Cooper City locksmith Stuart Hess puffed up to 40 cigarettes a day for about 40 years before he died of lung cancer at age 55 in 1997.

Lawyers for his widow say Hess tried to quit. He tried Nicorette gum. He tried hypnosis. Tried going cold turkey. But he couldn't do it.

Lawyers for Philip Morris, maker of the Benson & Hedges cigarettes that Hess preferred, say the locksmith was not addicted and could have stopped smoking at any time.

Whether or not Hess was addicted to cigarettes will be the key question as the lawsuit filed by Hess' widow Elaine against Philip Morris was to begin Monday however flooding in Broward’s main courthouse lead to a postponement.

The lawsuit by Elaine Hess, a nonsmoker, is the first to be heard of 8,000 filed in Florida after the state Supreme Court two years ago threw out a $145 billion award in a massive class-action lawsuit against tobacco firms over smoking-related illnesses. Individual smokers had until January to sue cigarette makers.

Smokers and their lawyers around the state are watching closely to see if the Hess case will be a bellwether.

''It won't control the outcome of other cases,'' said Anthony Sebok, a law professor at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York, who has followed Florida tobacco litigation. ``[But] it will have a psychological effect in setting a tone.''

The cases stem from a 1994 class-action lawsuit brought by smoker Howard Engle, a Miami Beach physician. He alleged tobacco firms intentionally addicted smokers and conspired to suppress information on smoking's dangers.

The $145 billion in punitive damages was the largest civil award in U.S. history. When the Florida Supreme Court later overturned the award, it ruled that smokers must prove individually that cigarettes caused their illnesses.

The smokers, who must have become ill by 1996, were given until January of this year to sue individually.

The court, however, let stand key findings in the individual cases to be brought against cigarette makers, including that tobacco companies committed fraud by deceiving smokers about the harmful effects and addictive nature of cigarettes.

In Elaine Hess' case, her lawyers can't bring up those findings to the jury unless they first prove Stuart Hess was addicted to cigarettes and that the addiction caused his lung cancer. If they fail, the trial ends.

If they succeed, jurors will then determine the amount of damages to award Hess to compensate her for her losses. Jurors can assign fault for Stuart Hess' death, including to him.

Finally, jurors will decide whether to award additional damages to punish Philip Morris. Hess' suit doesn't specify the amount she seeks.

The Brooklyn-born Stuart Hess started smoking in his early teens before the dangers were known, his lawyers say.

''He smoked cigarettes every day, one to two packs a day for 40 years,'' said Adam Trop, one of Hess' lawyers. ``He tried multiple times to quit by using Nicorette gum, by using different filters, by trying cold turkey, by hypnosis. Just was unable to do it.

''Very clearly he was addicted to cigarettes,'' Trop added. A smoker who makes a serious attempt to stop smoking has less than a 5 percent chance of being off cigarettes a year later, he added, citing a 1995 U.S. Food and Drug Administration finding that's posted on Philip Morris' website.

Philip Morris argues Stuart Hess was not addicted. But how does it know?

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