Florida jury slams tobacco company with $23.6B in punitive damages in widow's lawsuit
A
Florida jury has slammed the nation's No. 2 cigarette maker, R.J.
Reynolds Tobacco Co., with $23.6 billion in punitive damages in a
lawsuit filed by the widow of a longtime smoker who died of lung cancer
in 1996.
The case is one of
thousands filed in Florida after the state Supreme Court in 2006 tossed
out a $145 billion class action verdict. That ruling also said smokers
and their families need only prove addiction and that smoking caused
their illnesses or deaths.
Last
year, Florida's highest court re-approved that decision, which made it
easier for sick smokers or their survivors to pursue lawsuits against
tobacco companies without having to prove to the court again that Big
Tobacco knowingly sold dangerous products and hid the hazards of
cigarette smoking.
The
damages a Pensacola jury awarded Friday to Cynthia Robinson after a
four-week trial come in addition to $16.8 million in compensatory
damages.
Robinson
individually sued Reynolds in 2008 on behalf of her late husband,
Michael Johnson Sr. Her attorneys said the punitive damages are the
largest of any individual case stemming from the original class action
lawsuit.
"The jury wanted to
send a statement that tobacco cannot continue to lie to the American
people and the American government about the addictiveness of and the
deadly chemicals in their cigarettes," said one of the woman's
attorneys, Christopher Chestnut.
Reynolds'
vice president and assistant general counsel, J. Jeffery Raborn, called
the damages in Robinson's case "grossly excessive and impermissible
under state and constitutional law."
"This
verdict goes far beyond the realm of reasonableness and fairness, and
is completely inconsistent with the evidence presented," Raborn said in a
statement. "We plan to file post-trial motions with the trial court
promptly, and are confident that the court will follow the law and not
allow this runaway verdict to stand."
The
lawsuit's goal was to stop tobacco companies from targeting children
and young people with their advertising, said Willie Gary, another
attorney representing Robinson.
"If we don't get a dime, that's OK, if we can make a difference and save some lives," Gary said.
In
June, the U.S. Supreme Court turned away cigarette manufacturers'
appeals of more than $70 million in court judgments to Florida smokers.
Reynolds, Philip Morris USA Inc. and Lorillard Tobacco Co. had wanted
the court to review cases in which smokers won large damage awards
without having to prove that the companies sold a defective and
dangerous product or hid the risks of smoking.
The
Supreme Court refused to hear another of the companies' appeals last
year, wanting the court to consider overturning a $2.5 million Tampa
jury verdict in the death of a smoker.
Other
Florida juries have hit tobacco companies with tens of millions of
dollars in punitive damages in lawsuits stemming from the original class
action lawsuit.
In August, a
Fort Lauderdale jury awarded $37.5 million, including $22.5 million in
punitive damages against Reynolds, to the family of a smoker who died at
age 38 of lung cancer in 1995.
Attorneys
for Reynolds said they would appeal, arguing that the woman knew the
dangers of smoking because cigarettes had warning labels when she
started. The attorney for the woman's family said teenagers like her
were targeted by tobacco companies.
Some
large jury verdicts awarding tens of millions of dollars in damages to
relatives of smokers have been upheld by appeals courts.
In
September, the 3rd District Court of Appeals affirmed $25 million in
punitive damages and $10 million in compensatory damages against
Lorillard, the country's No. 3 cigarette maker, for Dorothy Alexander,
whose husband died in 1996 of lung cancer. Lorillard, based in
Greensboro, North Carolina, unsuccessfully argued the damages were
excessive and raised a number of other claims.
The
1st District Court of Appeals upheld in June 2013 a $20 million
punitive damage award to another smoker's widow, more than a year after
reversing a $40.8 million award in the same case against Reynolds. After
the appeals court rejected the first award as excessive the award
amount was recalculated. The tobacco company still objected.
Philip
Morris is the country's biggest tobacco company and owned by Richmond,
Virginia-based Altria Group Inc. Reynolds is owned by Winston-Salem,
North Carolina-based Reynolds American Inc.
If you miss your Big Wheel, you might dig this $2,000 motorized 
