Cigarette maker Philip Morris USA was ordered Thursday by a Florida jury to pay $300 million in damages to an ex-smoker. Cindy Naugle, who is wheelchair-bound by emphysema, is 61 years old. Although the jury ordered Philip Morris USA to pay, they also found Ms. Naugle was 10% responsible because of her decision to start smoking.
In addition to the $300 million in damages to be awarded to Naugle, The Broward Circuit Court jury assessed $56.6 million in past and future medical expenses against the company, part of Altria Group Inc, as well as $244 million in punitive damages. This is not a significant amount of money considering The Altria Group had sales in excess of 19.356 billion in 2008.
Of course, Philip Morris will seek further review of the verdict because of "numerous erroneous rulings by the trial judge," Philip Morris spokesman Murray Garnick said in a statement.
"We believe that the punitive damages award is grossly excessive and a clear violation of constitutional and state law," Garnick said.
Naugle, 61, who stopped smoking in 1993, smoked her first cigarette in 1968 when she was twenty years old because she thought they "made her look older." She told the jury that had she known then what the tobacco companies already knew, but had concealed, namely that nicotine is a highly-additive drug and cigarettes were considered by Philip Morris to be a "drug delivery device," she never would have taken that first puff.
Ms. Naugle, who tried unsuccessfully to quit smoking for many years, now needs 24-hour oxygen and must travel in a wheelchair because the simple act of walking leaves her exhausted. "Cindy admitted her fault to the jury," said her attorney, Robert W. Kelley of the Fort Lauderdale law firm Kelley/Uustal. "But Philip Morris refused to accept any responsibility for her emphysema, even though she was an addicted customer for 25 years," he added.
Cindy Naugle's lawsuit is just one in about 8,000 cases filed in the wake of a 2006 Florida Supreme Court decision that tossed out a massive class action against the tobacco companies. The case, known as Engle v. RJ Reynolds, resulted in the largest verdict in U.S. history at trial -- $145 billion.
Cheryl Phillips
HULIQ.com
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