R.J. Reynolds Ordered to Pay Nearly $24 Billion For Lying About Harm of Smoking

MIAMI (AP) — 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."

Lone Wolf wrote:   A FEW years ago, an American corporate lawyer and Uni' lecturer who has spent a good part of his time involved in anti-tobacco litigations was visiting Australia.

HE declared back then that the big tobacco corporations will all be out of business in our 'western' countries within a couple of decades ~ effectively putting themselves out of business because of all these litigation cases building up against them and their lying ways..

INDEED, it is obvious that the billionaire directors of these corporations themselves also believe that their days are truly numbered, as we see them preparing for the end in a couple of different directions :

*  steadily buying up shares in other industries over the last 3-4 decades - especially the likes of agribusiness, pharmaceuticals, mining and natural gas extraction;
*  and moving into the much slacker and loosely regulated Asian markets (China already consumes over 40% of the world's tobacco production..).


SUCH other relatively trivial issues such as "eCigs", and a couple of failing companies continuing to threaten countries like Oz and the UK over Cancer advertising and plain packaging, are in fact their last dying gasps, as companies such as BAT and Reynolds gradually fade away and their ratbag directors and shareholders prepare to jump ship..     ::=|Q::

Lone Wolf wrote: 

IN the future, I can see two likely options for the really hardcore smokers who refuse to give up :

* either resort to the cheaper "chop chop" rubbish from the backblocks of Asia and the Middle East;

* or revert to growing their own in the backyard, just like in the "good ol' days"..

eddie wrote:Can I just say though, that I don't agree with people being able to sue cigarette companies.
These smokers KNOW that smoking can cause death and illness, are they stupid??

No, it's not on. It's ridiculous actually.

It's like me suing McDonald's because it made me put on two stone in weight! (It didn't, I hate McDonald's it's nasty)

They should not be awarded a bloody dime. These people took up smoking of their own accord and with the knowledge that it isn't, actually, very good for you!