A widow was awarded $23.6 billion in punitive damages by a Florida jury Friday in her lawsuit against tobacco giant R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, in one of the largest wrongful death verdicts for a single plaintiff in Florida state history, CNN reported. The plaintiff's estate had previously won a $17 million as compensation for his family's loss.
In her lawsuit, Cynthia Robinson claimed that her husband, Michael Johnson, in 1996 was killed by smoking since R.J. Reynolds, maker of Pall Mall and Camel cigarettes, was negligent in not informing him that nicotine is addictive and smoking can cause lung cancer. After having started smoking when he was 13, Johnson died of lung cancer when he was 36.
The jury award Friday evening is "courageous," said Robinson's attorney, Christopher Chestnut. "If anyone saw the documents that this jury saw, I believe that person would have awarded a similar or greater verdict amount," said Chestnut, who along with attorney Willie Gary represents 400 cases in Florida against Big Tobacco companies. "This jury sent a message and gave 23.6 billion reasons why you can't lie to consumers."
The Escambia County trial's verdict included more than $16 million in compensatory damages, with the trial taking four weeks and the jury deliberating for 15 hours, according to the Pensacola News Journal. Robinson had filed the lawsuit in 2008.
Since five of the six jurors were reported to be 45 or younger, Chestnut had to educate them on how the tobacco industry presented its product before public awareness campaigns on tobacco risks and dangers became popular in the 1990s, he said.
In a statement, J. Jeffery Raborn, vice president and assistant general counsel for R. J. Reynolds, said the company plans to file post-trial motions to appeal the decision and verdict. "The damages awarded in this case are 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," said Raborn. "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 Johnson case stems from a class-action lawsuit involving Miami Beach pediatrician Howard Engle, who sued the tobacco companies for misleading the public and government as to the dangers of smoking, NBC News reported. He was awarded $145 billion in a landmark verdict in July 2000 - the largest punitive damage ever awarded in U.S. history at the time. It was overturned in 2003 after an appeals court ruled that it shouldn't have gone forward as a class-action suit and opened the door for individual lawsuits against tobacco companies.
