PENSACOLA, Fla., June 1, 2009 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- A Florida jury has awarded $5 Million in compensation and $25 Million in punitive damages against a tobacco company. In ruling against R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, the jury found that the company's conspiracy to conceal information about cigarettes was a legal cause of the death of Benny Martin. The Martin case is one of the first to be tried after the 2006 ruling of the Florida Supreme Court in Engle v. Liggett Group, Inc. that de-certified a class action against the tobacco companies. Robert Loehr, attorney for the estate of Benny Martin, said in opening statement to the jury that R.J. Reynolds and other tobacco companies conspired to make their products more addictive to customers and withheld information about the dangers of smoking. Loehr, along with attorney Matt Schultz, members of the law firm Levin, Papantonio, Thomas, Mitchell, Echsner & Proctor, P.A., are handling about 45 such cases throughout the state.
According to attorney Schultz, "Mr. Martin started smoking 20 years before there were any warnings on cigarettes. The jury here saw three weeks of evidence of exactly what the tobacco company tried to conceal. We had admitted from the outset that Mr. Martin bore some responsibility for his actions, but the defendant denied any responsibility throughout the trial. This punitive award will hopefully deter these kinds of corporate activities in the future." In deciding the case, the jury ruled that the deceased smoker Benny Martin was 34% responsible for the lung cancer damages and that the tobacco company was 66% at fault.
The Martin case has also drawn some international attention. Canadian attorneys seeking to help Canadian provinces recover health-care costs have been at the trial to closely monitor the presentation of evidence.
The original class-action lawsuit filed by the family of deceased Miami Beach pediatrician Howard Engle said that tobacco companies actively sought to keep customers addicted to their products. Pretrial motions and discovery in the 100 cases in Northwest Florida were consolidated under Circuit Judge Terry Terrell to avoid conflicting orders in cases where similar evidence will be presented. Judge Terrell presided over the Martin trial and was required to make numerous legal and evidentiary rulings as the case proceeded to trial. Circuit courts throughout Florida are required to try individual cases as a result of a Florida Supreme Court decision to overturn a $145 billion award in the Engle class action case. The higher court said smokers must prove on a case-by-case basis that cigarettes caused their respective illnesses.
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