USA: Widow speaks out after a Florida jury awards her a record $23 billions in her lawuit against RJ Reynolds

Record ID: 502623

  • Title: USA: Widow speaks out after a Florida jury awards her a record $23 billions in her lawuit against RJ Reynolds
  • Date: 21st July 2014
  • Summary: NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (JULY 21, 2104) (REUTERS) GARY, ROBINSON, CHESTNUT SEATED (SOUNDBITE) (English) WILLIE GARY, ATTORNEY, SAYING: "Nobody wants to lose. But when you win for a good cause and when you win and it's about more than just money. It's about making a difference. It's about being a voice for the voiceless. It's about standing up to the big corporat
  • Embargoed: 5th August 2014 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Usa
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: Crime
  • Reuters ID: LVA74U68Q0VOY845PFVWQJP7XQOG
  • Story Text: Cynthia Robinson, the widow of a chain smoker who died of lung cancer 18 years ago, was awarded more than $23 billion (USD) by a Florida jury in her lawsuit against the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, the nation's second-biggest cigarette maker.
    The judgment, returned on Friday night (July 18), was the largest in Florida history in a wrongful death lawsuit filed by a single plaintiff, according to Ryan Julison, a spokesman for the woman's lawyer, Chris Chestnut.
    Cynthia Robinson of the Florida Panhandle city of Pensacola sued the cigarette maker in 2008 over the death of her husband, Michael Johnson, claiming the company conspired to conceal the health dangers and addictive nature of its products.
    Johnson, a hotel shuttle bus driver, died of lung cancer in 1996 at age 36.
    "He would smoke every day, you know, he'd get up in the morning, go in the bathroom, shower, smoke," said Robinson during an interview with Reuters Television on Monday (July 21).
    She added, "He lights a cigarette off of a cigarette. He was really a chain smoker. He was hooked. He smoked a lot."
    After a four-week trial and 11 hours of deliberations, the jury returned a verdict granting compensatory damages of $7.3 million to Robinson and the couple's child, and $9.6 million to Johnson's son from a previous relationship.
    The same jury deliberated for another seven hours before awarding Robinson the additional sum of $23.6 billion in punitive damages, according to the verdict forms.
    One of Robinson's lawyers, Willie Gary, told Reuters, "It's about more than just money. It's about making a difference. It's about being a voice for the voiceless. It's about standing up to the big corporations and knowing that they have the money, the power, the resources and the influence to beat you, to come after you. And to have fought that kind of a fight and to still be standing and to get the jury to send that kind of a message to big tobacco."
    "It was judgment day and it caught up with RJ Reynolds Tobacco," Gary added.
    Lawyers for the tobacco company, a unit of Reynolds American Inc whose brands include Camel, Kool, Winston and Pall Mall cigarettes, could not immediately be reached for comment.
    But J. Jeffery Raborn, vice president and assistant general counsel for R.J. Reynolds, said in a statement quoted by the New York Times that the company planned to challenge "this runaway verdict." Such industry appeals are often successful.
    Chris Chestnut, also a lawyer for Robinson, countered, "I don't think this was a 'runaway verdict' at all. I it was 'a stop dead in your tracks verdict'. I think it stopped tobacco dead in their tracks. The conduct of tobacco has been egregious for decades. They've been lying to the public. They've been lying to the government."
    Chestnut said the jury appeared to have been outraged by evidence of the company's aggressive marketing of tobacco products, particularly promotions aimed at young people, and by its claims that it was Johnson's choice to smoke.
    "What has tobacco done to move or motivate a jury to award a 23 billion dollar punitive verdict, punitive damages verdict? Clearly, there is some egregious conduct. Clearly that jury was offended and it was a reasonable verdict."
    Robinson's lawsuit originally was part of a large class-action litigation known as the "Engle case," filed in 1994 against tobacco companies.
    A jury in that case returned a verdict in 2000 in favor of the plaintiffs awarding $145 billion in punitive damages, which at the time was the largest such judgment in U.S. history.
    That award, however, was tossed out in 2006 by the Florida Supreme Court, which decertified the class, agreeing with a lower court that the group was too disparate and that each consumer had smoked for different reasons.
    But the court said the plaintiffs could file lawsuits individually. Robinson was one of them.
    Robinson said her late husband would be "very proud" of her fight against R.J. Reynolds.
    "He knew if there is something I have to do, I'm going to do it, no matter what. I will not stop until I am pleased. And we did just that, Mr. Gary and Mr. Chestnut and of course God," she said.
    However, lawyers with expertise in jury awards said the $23 billion judgment is likely to be rejected on appeal or reduced substantially.
    The award likely falls outside the boundaries for punitive damages that the U.S. Supreme Court has laid down in a series of cases, the lawyers told Reuters.
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