Looks that way.
Tobacco Industry Told To Pay $140B
MIAMI, Jul 14, 2000 (AP Online via COMTEX) -- A jury ordered the tobacco
industry Friday to pay more than $140 billion in punitive damages to sick
Florida smokers, a record-shattering verdict that the cigarette companies had
claimed would amount to a "death warrant."
"Lot of zeros," Circuit Judge Robert Kaye said after reading the jury's
breakdown against each defendant.
Lawyers for Big Tobacco had said that the five companies could afford to pay
only $150 million to $375 million, and that the companies would be put out of
business if the award went much higher. Under Florida law, a punitive verdict
cannot bankrupt a defendant.
The six jurors, who had sat through a two-year trial and heard 157 witnesses,
began deliberating the punitive damages question Friday morning after Kaye read
final instructions. They deliberated a little less than five hours before
reaching a decision.
Friday was the third time the jury has deliberated in the case, the first
smokers' class-action lawsuit to go to trial. The panel decided in July 1999
that the industry makes a deadly product. In the second phase, the jury in April
ordered the industry to pay $12.7 million in compensatory damages to three
smokers representing the class.
The smokers wanted the tobacco companies to pay $196 billion as punishment for
making a product that kills 430,000 Americans a year and for misleading the
public since the 1950s, when internal research concluded smoking causes cancer.
Top executives from all five defendants made unusual appearances to testify they
didn't deserve to be punished because they have changed their ways and are
already committed to paying billions of dollars to settle the lawsuits brought
by the states.
The ruling was the largest jury damage award ever, far surpassing the $22
billion awarded in Hawaii in 1996 to a treasure hunter, Rogelio Rojas, who sued
former Philippines president Ferdinand Marcos for the alleged theft of gold
bullion. That verdict was later overturned.
The largest previous punitive-damage award was $5 billion against ExxonMobil for
the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska. The company is appealing. The previous
record for punitive damages in a product-liability case was $4.8 billion against
General Motors last year in a California car fire. A judge slashed the award to
$1.09 billion.
The industry filed a mistrial motion earlier Friday based on closing arguments
by plaintiffs' attorney Stanley Rosenblatt, charging improper commentary and
inflammatory remarks "preclude the jury's rational consideration" of the case.
The judge has delayed deciding dozens of mistrial requests.
As the case wound down this week, lawyers for both sides spoke of death - the
death of Big Tobacco and the deaths of millions of smokers.
Dan Webb, attorney for industry-leading Philip Morris Inc., said the awarding of
up to $196 billion would be a "death warrant" for the industry.
Rosenblatt turned the phrase around Thursday, saying it was the cigarette
industry that had issued death warrants to millions of consumers.
Lawyers for Big Tobacco have said they can afford $150 million to $375 million,
but the companies would be put out of business if the award went much higher.
Under Florida law, a punitive verdict cannot bankrupt a defendant.
The range offered by the industry, which has never paid any damages to smokers,
amounts to 1 percent to 3 percent of its $15.3 billion audited net worth - or
one to four days in wholesale cigarette sales.
"You either destroy them or you don't," Brown & Williamson attorney Gordon Smith
told jurors. "Your verdict must reflect the current ability to pay. It must
reflect reality, not fantasy."
Rosenblatt told jurors this was "no time for timidity" and asked them to "wipe
out 50 years of treachery" by the industry. He told panelists to send a message
to the world.
Lowering the $196 billion request "in any substantial way would be a crushing
blow to public health in this country," he said in closing remarks Thursday.
"We ask you to speak for all those silent, anonymous victims of tobacco grieved
by their loved ones but unknown to a callous and deceitful industry," Rosenblatt
said.
The key tobacco defense is that the industry has changed its ways since states
began suing in 1994, and that the $257 billion national settlement with the
states is enough to pay.
The Florida case is the most serious financial threat to the industry since the
national settlement. Any verdict will be appealed and could take at least two
years to move through Florida's courts.
Brown & Williamson was the last cigarette maker to offer closing arguments,
asking the jury to make it pay the smallest amount based on the company's lowest
rank by profits among the defendants.
Smith said 7,000 employees are working to make Brown & Williamson a responsible
company, and pleaded: "I ask that you don't kill that dream. Don't stop a better
future."
The other defendants are R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., Lorillard Tobacco Co.,
Liggett Group Inc. and the industry's defunct Council for Tobacco Research and
Tobacco Institute.
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On the Net:
Tobacco links: umich.edu
Copyright 2000 Associated Press, All rights reserved
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APO Priority=u
APO Category=1310
KEYWORD: MIAMI
SUBJECT CODE: 1310
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