Posted on 07/19/2014 11:24:15 PM PDT by Innovative
A Florida jury has awarded the widow of a chain smoker who died of lung cancer punitive damages of more than $23 billion in her lawsuit against the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, the nation's second-biggest cigarette maker.
The judgment, returned on Friday night, 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.
After a four-week trial and 11 hours of jury deliberations, the jury returned a verdict granting the widow $7.3 million and the couple's son $9.6 million in compensatory damages.
The same jury deliberated for another seven hours before deciding to award Robinson the additional sum of $23.6 billion in punitive damages, according to the verdict forms.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
What was the matter with the jury?!
Stupid jury and emotional verdict.
Even $23 Million would have been way too much — but 23 BILLION, with a “B” is insane!
Great — the damages are twice what the company is worth!
This is insane.
low info voters jury I wonder???
Actually, that amount was a combined total for the two large tobacco companies. R. J. Reynolds alone has a net worth $5.3 billion. So the jury awarded the plaintiff 4x what the company is worth.
I used to smoke. Where do I sign up for my billions?
What kind of a stupid jury is that? The original awards were plenty, but I guess they just want Reynolds to “get the message.”
I’ve argued many times with libs about everyone having a choice to stop smoking, and if it’s hard to do, they can get all kinds of help. The fury and rage these idiots displayed at my simple, logical statement of fact was really frightening. “NO, no one can stop.”
I smoked an average of two packs a day for thirty years. I even watched them slowly kill my father but still didn’t quit. Switched to an e-cig two years ago after an expletive-laced tirade from my doctor, and so far, so good. But I told my wife that if it comes back to haunt me ten or fifteen years from now, all she’s to do is to run me through the undertaker’s oven and put me on the mantle in a walnut box. My choice, my consequences. My stupidity.
I think those e-cigs are a godsend.
I don’t use them myself, but they are perfectly harmless to those around the users.
Coughing up dark brown phlegm for three decades wasn’t a clue.
First, the companies would be instantly replaced by violent criminal gangs with huge cash incomes.
Thus, a huge new expense for the justice system, plus, bodies in the street.
Second, state, local, and federal taxes collected on tobacco were about $31 billion in 2013.
That income would disappear like a...puff of smoke!
Finally, all the tort lawyers who participated in the 1998 “Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement” would lose their multi-million dollar annuities, a large part of which they kick back to the Democrat Party.
Bankrupt the tobacco companies?
I say:
“Go For It!”
The “damages” should have consisted of the widow and her lawyers being ordered to reimburse RJR for their expenses.
I begged him since I was a child to stop smoking, but he could not find the strength to kick the addiction. So he paid the price. And so did I, in losing him. I'll bet smokers don't consider the ones they leave behind as they puff their way to radiation therapy, chemotherapy, and seeing the stricken faces of loved ones around their bed. Or the lifelong asthma my smoking parents gifted me with.
I’m not into those urban-jungle e-hookahs everyone seems to be puffing these days. I prefer the menthol 21st Century Smoke. But yes, they are a godsend. No smell, no carcinogens, just water, menthol, glycol, and a little shot of nicotine. Within a month of switching, I could smell smokers even after they’d left a room. My wind started to come back, and food tasted fresher. And I certainly don’t miss spending the first ten minutes of my waking day coughing up phlegm out of my chest. I’m not going to turn into one of those raving anti-smoking zealots - I know how good an after dinner/sex/you-name-it smoke is. I just found a universally healthier way to indulge in my vice. And you can bet your firstborn that liberals are feverishly trying to find ways to regulate and tax it. And if they can’t do it on the free market, they’ll try to have it declared a medical device requiring a prescription through Obamacare. Mark my words.
Flame away, but I will bet a strong willed woman or a sissified man or 2 were on that jury.
Your father also made the remarkable individual that you are. Humans are peculiar creatures and enjoy their petty habits and vices, even if dangerous. I know smokers. Talking sense into them is difficult.
Altria (formerly Philip Morris) - $84 billion
Lorillard - $22 billion
Reynolds - $31 billion
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