Susan Rosenblatt, 70, has died. With her husband, she challenged Big Tobacco and won

Up until the early 2000s, cigarette smoking was much more ubiquitous in American society than it is today. Smoking sections were common in most restaurants, and in many bars, those with the habit could light up anywhere they liked.

Smoking wasn’t even completely banned on commercial airplanes in the United States until the year 2000.

The landscape has changed dramatically since then, and that’s in large part because of Susan and Stanley Rosenblatt, a wife-and-husband team of independent attorneys who took on Big Tobacco and won $145 billion in damages on behalf of thousands of Floridians sickened from smoking.

It remains the highest punitive judgment awarded in a personal-injury case in U.S. history.

“Susan and her husband Stanley made legal history with their enormous David-versus-Goliath victory against tobacco,” said attorney Dennis G. Kainen, past president of the Miami-Dade County Bar Association. “If that were her only accomplishment, it would have been life-altering for anyone. But, she was known to have a lovingly close family, and was well-respected by the bar.”

Susan Rosenblatt died Sunday, Nov. 14 at the age of 70 after battling acute myeloid leukemia for the past three years, her husband and son said.

“She was the best thing that ever happened to me, without a doubt,” Stanley, 85, said Tuesday in a telephone interview following his wife’s funeral.

The couple have nine adult children, three of whom followed their parents into the legal field.

An academic prodigy, the Brooklyn, New York-born Susan graduated from high school at age 12 and from the University of Miami at 17 with a bachelor’s degree in economics. She graduated cum laude from UM law school at 21, according to the Jerusalem Post.

Like Susan, Stanley was also born in Brooklyn and moved with his family to Miami at a young age. He and Susan met at the suggestion of another area attorney whom neither knew very well but who told Susan — while she was mourning the death of her father at his shiva — that she thought they’d hit it off.

They eventually got together with a group of mutual friends, and “we clicked,” Stanley said.

The couple focused on Stanley’s practice as a trial lawyer as they raised their ever-growing family in the Orthodox Jewish faith.

While Stanley was comfortable arguing in the courtroom, Susan was more at ease behind the scenes and was an expert at researching the law. Her legal acumen was particularly needed in the early 1990s, when the couple decided to represent their children’s pediatrician and other plaintiffs who were suffering from the effects of cigarette smoking in their lawsuit against Philip Morris, R.J. Reynolds and other major tobacco companies

Those corporate defendants had armies of attorneys employing teams of researchers and paralegals to prepare them for court every day.

Stanley had Susan, which was just fine with him.

“I didn’t need a dream team. I had Susan. She took care of everything. I don’t even have a cellphone. I didn’t need one because I had her,” Stanley said.

The case started in the early 1990s after the Rosenblatts spoke with their children’s doctor, Howard Engle, who was suffering from emphysema.

“He was a heavy smoker, and he was very ashamed that he was addicted,” Stanley said.

The Rosenblatts had previously obtained a $349 million settlement in 1997 on behalf of flight attendants suing the tobacco industry who had become ill from years of working in airplane cabins filled with secondhand smoke, according to The Washington Post.

The case initiated by Engle eventually became a class-action lawsuit in 1994 on behalf of the hundreds of thousands of Floridians ailing from cigarette-related diseases, the Post reported.

It took six years and millions of dollars in legal costs before the jury handed down the unprecedented award on July 14, 2000.

The pace of the proceedings and the research that went into the case were exhausting, Stanley said. What got the family through was their faith, particularly adhering to the Saturday Sabbath and taking the day off from work.

“At least we could look forward to the one day. And, after that, it was one day at a time. One day at a time, and we just got through it,” Stanley said, again thinking back to the staggering wall of corporate attorneys he and Susan were up against.

At any given time during the trial, there were 10 attorneys at the table and up to 40 paralegals working for the tobacco companies in the audience.

“And, at our table it was just me and Susan and a couple of paralegals. People would walk in the courtroom and say, ‘What’s going on. You’re in over your head.’ Were we ever,” Stanley said.

Over the past three years, Susan was being treated for leukemia in different areas throughout the country, from Miami to New York, to most recently the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. Through it all, her family was by her side, especially her daughters, Stanley said.

“She always had one of her daughters with her,” he said. “Obviously, this is a comfort.”

In addition to her children, her son David said she is survived by 30 grandchildren.

“She was able to marry off all of her children before she passed so early,” he said.

Facing off against the Rosenblatts as one of the attorney’s for the tobacco companies was one of Jose Martinez’s final cases before becoming a federal judge. Upon hearing of Susan Rosenblatt’s death Tuesday, Martinez reflected with respect upon her tenacity, commitment to the law, and her unwavering resolve in the face of one of the most powerful industries at the time:

“She was a very able opponent and played within the rules, but she was very tough. As far as I’m concerned, she was an extremely brilliant lawyer and did an excellent job for her clients, as was evidenced by she and her husband taking on a whole industry.”