rockin'robin
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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- The Florida Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld a $28.3 million verdict against R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. in the first of about 8,000 lawsuits that have been filed against cigarette companies in Florida by sick smokers and their families.
The decision may set a precedent for the other cases, but a spokesman for Reynolds said the company will appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The justices declined to hear Reynolds' appeal of a 1st District Court of Appeal ruling that affirmed a Pensacola jury's award to the family of Benny Martin, who died of lung cancer in 1995.
"It's a huge victory for the victims of the tobacco industry's conduct," said Robert Loehr, one of the family's lawyers in Pensacola. "It gives them at least the confidence they will have their day in court."
The Supreme Court in 2006 threw out a $145 billion class-action award against tobacco companies and said damages must be decided on a case-by-case basis. The justices in that opinion, though, found that cigarette makers knowingly sold dangerous and defective products and hid the risk of smoking.
As a result, the plaintiffs need not prove those factors. They must mainly show they were addicted to smoking and could not quit and that their illnesses, or deaths of family members, were caused by cigarettes.
The Supreme Court did not explain its 5-0 decision to reject the appeal in a one-page order. Chief Justice Charles Canady and Justice Barbara Pariente did not participate in the decision.
The Martin family's lawyers argued in papers filed with the high court that Chief Circuit Judge Terry Terrell in Pensacola as well as the Tallahassee appellate court correctly followed the 2006 Supreme Court opinion and that Reynolds was seeking to nullify it.
"Merely because RJR would like a different precedent from this court does not establish conflict jurisdiction," they wrote.
Reynolds' lawyers argued the Martin rulings misapplied the Supreme Court's opinion and conflicted with other state appeal court rulings.
"We remain confident that the Martin decision violates Reynolds' constitutional rights to a fair and impartial trial," said company spokesman David Howard in Winston-Salem, N.C.
Howard noted that a federal appeals court in Atlanta last year issued a ruling that differed from the state justices' 2006 opinion. Lawyers for the tobacco companies and smokers each claimed the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' decision would benefit their clients. About 4,400 similar lawsuits have been filed in Florida's federal courts.
The 2006 ruling has helped generate more than $360 million in damage awards in only about two dozen cases. Thousands more are still pending. Jurors have sided with smokers or their families in about two-thirds of the cases tried so far.
The largest verdict issued to date has been in northern Florida's Levy County - $80 million - to the daughter of a man who died of lung cancer.
Fla. Justices Uphold $28.3M Smoker Verdict - Jacksonville News Story - WJXT Jacksonville
The decision may set a precedent for the other cases, but a spokesman for Reynolds said the company will appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The justices declined to hear Reynolds' appeal of a 1st District Court of Appeal ruling that affirmed a Pensacola jury's award to the family of Benny Martin, who died of lung cancer in 1995.
"It's a huge victory for the victims of the tobacco industry's conduct," said Robert Loehr, one of the family's lawyers in Pensacola. "It gives them at least the confidence they will have their day in court."
The Supreme Court in 2006 threw out a $145 billion class-action award against tobacco companies and said damages must be decided on a case-by-case basis. The justices in that opinion, though, found that cigarette makers knowingly sold dangerous and defective products and hid the risk of smoking.
As a result, the plaintiffs need not prove those factors. They must mainly show they were addicted to smoking and could not quit and that their illnesses, or deaths of family members, were caused by cigarettes.
The Supreme Court did not explain its 5-0 decision to reject the appeal in a one-page order. Chief Justice Charles Canady and Justice Barbara Pariente did not participate in the decision.
The Martin family's lawyers argued in papers filed with the high court that Chief Circuit Judge Terry Terrell in Pensacola as well as the Tallahassee appellate court correctly followed the 2006 Supreme Court opinion and that Reynolds was seeking to nullify it.
"Merely because RJR would like a different precedent from this court does not establish conflict jurisdiction," they wrote.
Reynolds' lawyers argued the Martin rulings misapplied the Supreme Court's opinion and conflicted with other state appeal court rulings.
"We remain confident that the Martin decision violates Reynolds' constitutional rights to a fair and impartial trial," said company spokesman David Howard in Winston-Salem, N.C.
Howard noted that a federal appeals court in Atlanta last year issued a ruling that differed from the state justices' 2006 opinion. Lawyers for the tobacco companies and smokers each claimed the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' decision would benefit their clients. About 4,400 similar lawsuits have been filed in Florida's federal courts.
The 2006 ruling has helped generate more than $360 million in damage awards in only about two dozen cases. Thousands more are still pending. Jurors have sided with smokers or their families in about two-thirds of the cases tried so far.
The largest verdict issued to date has been in northern Florida's Levy County - $80 million - to the daughter of a man who died of lung cancer.
Fla. Justices Uphold $28.3M Smoker Verdict - Jacksonville News Story - WJXT Jacksonville
