A CIGARETTE giant in the US has vowed to fight a jury verdict ordering the company to pay $25.5 billion in punitive damages to Cynthia Robinson, the widow of a longtime smoker who died of lung cancer.
Yesterday, a Florida jury ordered tobacco company RJ Reynolds to pay the sum, in addition to more than $17 million in compensation to the estate of Michael Johnson Sr, after 15 hours of deliberations. It’s the largest verdict for a plaintiff in state history and sends a strong message to Big Tobacco that could open the floodgates for further claims.
During the four-week trial lawyers for Cynthia Robinson argued RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company was negligent in informing consumers of the dangers of consuming tobacco and thus led to her late husband Johnson contracting lung cancer from smoking cigarettes. They said Johnson had become “addicted” to cigarettes and failed multiple attempts to quit smoking.
“RJ Reynolds took a calculated risk by manufacturing cigarettes and selling them to consumers without properly informing them of the hazards,” Robinson’s lawyer Willie Gary said in a statement. “As a result of their negligence, my client’s husband suffered from lung cancer and eventually lost his life.”
“We hope that this verdict will send a message to RJ Reynolds and other big tobacco companies that will force them to stop putting the lives of innocent people in jeopardy.”
The tobacco company has hit back at the verdict, with RJ Reynolds vice president and assistant general counsel J Jeffery Raborn saying it was “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,” Mr Raborn said.
“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 case is one of thousands filed in Florida after the state Supreme Court in 2006 threw out a $154 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.
Robinson individually sued Reynolds in 2008 on behalf of her late husband, Michael Johnson Sr, who died in 1996. Her attorneys said the punitive damages are the largest of any individual case stemming from the original class action lawsuit.
The verdict came the same week that Reynolds American Inc, which owns R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, announced it was purchasing Lorillard Tobacco Co, the country’s No. 3 cigarette maker, in a $26 billion deal. That would create a tobacco company second only in the U.S. to Marlboro maker Altria Group Inc, which owns Philip Morris USA Inc and is based in Richmond, Virginia.
The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2015 and likely will face regulatory scrutiny.
Anti-smoking advocates hailed the verdict as a reminder of what they called the tobacco industry’s history of marketing to children and hiding the truth about their products.
“Wall Street analysts like to say the industry’s liability risk is manageable. What this verdict shows is the tobacco industry’s risk is far greater than Wall Street analysts would lead investors believe,” said Vince Willmore, spokesman for the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.
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