A jury in northwestern Florida awarded a staggering $23 billion judgment late Friday against the country\u2019s second-largest tobacco company for causing the death of a chain smoker who died of lung cancer at the age of 36.<\/p>\n
The company, the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, promised a prompt appeal.<\/p>\n
Michael Johnson Sr. died in 1996 after smoking for more than 20 years. In 2006, his widow, Cynthia Robinson, of Pensacola, sued R. J. Reynolds the maker of the Kool brand cigarettes her husband had smoked, arguing that the company had deliberately concealed the health hazards its product caused.<\/p>\n
The four-week trial ended Wednesday. The jury deliberated for 18 hours over two days, first awarding $17 million in compensatory damages and then emerging at 10 p.m. Friday with a $23.6 billion punitive judgment.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen they first read the verdict, I know I heard \u2018million,\u2019 and I got so excited,\u201d Ms. Robinson said in a phone interview Saturday. \u201cThen the attorney informed me that was a \u2018B\u2019 \u2014 billion. It was just unbelievable.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said Mr. Johnson, a longshoreman and hotel shuttle bus driver to whom she was married from 1990 until his death six years later, began smoking around age 13. He often lit a fresh cigarette with the butt end of another.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe really did smoke a lot,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
He had two children, who are now 23 and 29.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe damages awarded in this case are grossly excessive and impermissible under state and constitutional law,\u201d J. Jeffery Raborn, vice president and assistant general counsel for R. J. Reynolds, said Saturday in a statement. \u201cThis verdict goes far beyond the realm of reasonableness and fairness and is completely inconsistent with the evidence presented. 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
Such efforts by the industry are often successful. In October 2002, a Los Angeles jury awarded $28 billion in punitive damages against Philip Morris USA. In August 2011, an appeals court reduced the punitive damages to $28 million.<\/p>\n
The Florida case was among the thousands of the so-called \u201cEngle progeny\u201d cases that stemmed from a 2006 court decision ruling that smokers could not file class-action suits but were free to do so individually.<\/p>\n
That decision reversed a $145 billion verdict in a class action awarded in 2000 on behalf of a Miami Beach pediatrician, Howard A. Engle. An appeals court voided the award, saying it was excessive and the cases of individual smokers were too disparate to be considered as a class.<\/p>\n
The plaintiffs petitioned the Florida Supreme Court, which upheld the decertification of the class but permitted individuals to sue, which set the stage for Ms. Robinson\u2019s lawsuit.<\/p>\n
Friday\u2019s verdict was the highest granted to an Engle progeny case.<\/p>\n
Ms. Robinson was represented by Christopher M. Chestnut, based in Georgia, and Willie E. Gary and Howard M. Acosta, both based in Florida.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe jury just got it,\u201d Mr. Chestnut said. \u201cThe jury was outraged with the concealment and the conspiracy to conceal that smoking was not only addictive but that there were deadly chemicals in cigarettes.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said the jury seemed most persuaded by 1994 C-Span footage of tobacco industry executives claiming smoking did not cause cancer and was not addictive, and by 60-year-old internal documents showing the company knew otherwise.<\/p>\n
Scott P. Schlesinger, a Fort Lauderdale, Fla., lawyer who has sued big tobacco but was not involved in the Robinson case, said a verdict this large is not typical.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere have not been multibillion-dollar punishments in the Engle cases for one reason: We are afraid to ask for them. We are afraid of what will happen in the appellate process,\u201d he said. \u201cThis verdict is important because it goes back to an ongoing saga that goes back to 1990. People have been filing suit one by one, and we have been winning about 70 percent of them.\u201d<\/p>\n
–<\/p>\n
Credit: New York Times<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A jury in northwestern Florida awarded a staggering $23 billion judgment late Friday against the country\u2019s second-largest tobacco company for causing the death of a chain smoker who died of lung cancer at the age of 36. The company, the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, promised a prompt appeal. Michael Johnson Sr. died in 1996 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":33139,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[714],"tags":[1746,1747,7],"yoast_head":"\n