RSS
Home
Broward jury awards record $300 million verdict against tobacco company
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
Photo by Matt Rourke/AP
(11/23/09) FORT LAUDERDALE, FL – A Broward County jury Thursday awarded a record $300,590,000 verdict against tobacco giant Phillip Morris, USA, including $244 million in punitive damages alone. The verdict is the largest ever in Florida against the tobacco industry. The suit was one of a number of lawsuits pending throughout the state of Florida after the Florida Supreme Court de-certified the class-action and required each claimant to bring their own separate lawsuit.
This suit, in particular, was brought by 61 year-old Lucinda Naugle, the sister of former Ft. Lauderdale Mayor Jim Naugle, who smoked for 25 years since she was 20 years old, before finally quitting the habit. The jury found Naugle 10% liable due to her own smoking habits, and Phillip Morris, the maker of Naugle’s then-favorite cigarettes, Benson & Hedges, 90% liable. Naugle now suffers from emphysema and is dependent on an oxygen tank to help her get enough oxygen to perform even the simplest of tasks.
On Friday, Phillip Morris announced that they would seek further review of the judgment, of which $52.8 million was for non-economic damages, including pain and suffering, while only $3.7 were awarded for actual economic damages. In a statement, Phillip Morris called the $244 million punitive damage award “grossly excessive” and accused the court of employing a “fundamentally unfair and unconstitutional trial plan” based upon the court’s ability to use the factual findings of a previous jury – the Engle case.
In the Engle case, brought as a class-action suit by nearly 8,000 claimants throughout Florida, the jury made a factual finding that cigarettes were addictive and harmful, and that the tobacco industry knew of this fact and intentionally concealed it. The case reached the Florida Supreme Court, which decertified the class, requiring each claimant to bring his or her own lawsuit, but specifically permitted the claimants from introducing the Engle jury’s factual determinations as established fact in their own cases. This eased the burden significantly for the individual claimants, forcing their cases more towards the actual injury suffered by the smoker.
Of the original 8,000 claimants, only a few have actually filed separate lawsuits, as most are currently tied up in an appeal to the federal courts regarding constitutional issues raised by the Engle decision.
For more info: Jury Verdict
Phillip Morris calls verdict “grossly excessive”
Ex-Mayor Naugle’s sister wins $300 million Big Tobacco verdict
Former smoker wins $300M verdict
Florida jury awards $300 million in ex-smoker’s suit
Related Articles:
Comments
