Widow is rewarded $23.6 BILLION dollars in a lawsuit vs. R.J. Reynolds for her husband dying from lung cancer

[BeerAndPoker]

No that isn't supposed to say million which to me would be an insane amount in itself but $23.6 BILLION dollars???



http://wtvr.com/2014/07/20/r-j-reyno...-23-6-billion/

Fla. jury awards $23.6 billion to lung cancer widow in RJ Reynolds lawsuit
Posted 12:06 am, July 20, 2014, by CNN Money
Updated at 12:17am, July 20, 2014

A Florida jury awarded a widow $23.6 billion in punitive damages in her lawsuit against tobacco giant R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, her lawyer said.

Cynthia Robinson claimed that smoking killed her husband, Michael Johnson, in 1996. She argued R.J. Reynolds was negligent in not informing him that nicotine is addictive and smoking can cause lung cancer. Johnson started smoking when he was 13 and died of lung cancer when he was 36.

The jury award Friday evening is “courageous,” said Robinson’s lawyer, Christopher Chestnut.

“If anyone saw the documents that this jury saw, I believe that person would have awarded a similar or greater verdict amount,” he said.

The Escambia County trial took four weeks and the jury deliberated for 15 hours, according to the Pensacola News Journal. The verdict included more than $16 million in compensatory damages, the newspaper said.

Chestnut said five of the six jurors who heard the case were 45 or younger, which meant he had to show hem how the tobacco industry presented its product before the public awareness campaigns on tobacco risks and dangers in the 1990s, he said.

In a statement, J. Jeffery Raborn, vice president and assistant general counsel for R. J. Reynolds, said, “The damages awarded in this case are grossly excessive and impermissible under state and constitutional law.

“This verdict goes far beyond the realm of reasonableness and fairness and is completely inconsistent with the evidence presented,” said Raborn. “We plan to file post-trial motions with the trial court promptly and are confident that the court will follow the law and not allow this runaway verdict to stand.”

Robinson’s case was once part of a class-action lawsuit in which a jury had awarded $145 billion in damages, but in 2006 the Florida Supreme Court overturned that verdict. In its ruling, however, the state’s high court opened the door for individual lawsuits against tobacco companies.

Robinson filed her lawsuit in 2008.

LOL at this amount but I still can't knock the hustle so if this lady is able to get that much from an insane ruling then well played by her representation.

[shortbuspoker]

It is ridiculous. It will be overturned as excessive. Whatever it eventually gets adjusted to the lawyers and the IRS will have a field day.

[4Dragons]

The only outrageous thing is that her husband was such a retarded twat that he had no clue that smoking was addictive or could give you cancer. I knew both by the time I was 10.

[shortbuspoker]

The only outrageous thing is that her husband was such a retarded twat that he had no clue that smoking was addictive or could give you cancer. I knew both by the time I was 10.

I'm 80/20 on it being all his fault. If my math is right from reading the story he started smoking at the age of 13 in 1970 and there weren't warning labels back then. This though leads me to the fact that he was technically breaking the law by smoking that young and that would have been one of the cornerstones of my defense if I were one of the tobacco lawyers.

[Charham]

I want "Christopher Chesnut" as my lawyer (with a name like that he could have been a mob defense lawyer)... he must be quite the personality to pull this off or the lady client must be the biggest sob story in the world. probably both.

will be reversed or reduced on appeal, though they sometimes require major bonds for appeal, and for a judgement this size that could be enough to put most companies out of business.

[BeerAndPoker]

The only outrageous thing is that her husband was such a retarded twat that he had no clue that smoking was addictive or could give you cancer. I knew both by the time I was 10.

Even if at a young age he was really that ignorant since they weren't required to put the surgeon general report labels on the packs he still was a chain smoker who had to know there were health risks to live like that.

Once they started putting the labels on the packs you can bet the guy wasn't going to seek treatment to quit at that point so it's his own fucking fault for most of it and his widow wife don't deserve some insane retirement package settlement.