Judge orders cigarette firm to pay widow

Sh2.2trn over cancer death

A Florida jury has ordered US cigarette company, RJ Reynolds Tobacco, to pay $23.6 billion
(Sh2.2 trillion) to the widow of a longtime smoker who died of lung cancer. The verdict was
one of the largest for a single plaintiff in the states history. In addition to the punitive
damages, the verdict also awarded more than $16 million (Sh1.4 billion) in compensatory
damages to the estate of Michael Johnson Sr.

During the four-week trial, lawyers for Johnsons widow, Ms Cynthia Robinson, argued that
the tobacco company was negligent in informing consumers of the dangers of consuming
tobacco and thus led to Johnson contracting lung cancer from smoking cigarettes. They said
Johnson, who died at 36, had become addicted to cigarettes and failed multiple attempts to
quit smoking. The Escambia County jury returned its verdict after some 15 hours of
deliberations.

RJ Reynolds took a calculated risk by manufacturing cigarettes and selling them to

consumers without properly informing them of the hazards, Ms Robinsons lawyer, Mr
Willie Gary, said in a statement.

Negligence

As a result of their negligence, my clients husband suffered from lung cancer and
eventually lost his life. We hope that this verdict will send a message to RJ Reynolds and
other big tobacco companies that will force them to stop putting the lives of innocent people
in jeopardy. RJ Reynolds plans to appeal the court decision and verdict, vice president and
assistant general counsel J. Jeffery Raborn said. The landmark award was far beyond the
realm of reasonableness and fairness, he said in a statement.

Reynolds is confident that the court will follow the law and not allow this runaway verdict
to stand, said Mr Raborn, calling the damages grossly excessive and impermissible under
state and constitutional law. Smoking remains the leading preventable cause of premature
death in the United States, killing nearly half a million Americans each year, health experts
say.

Some 18 per cent of Americans now smoke, down from 42 per cent in the 1960s. The RJ
Reynolds court verdict comes only days after its parent company, Reynolds American,
announced it would acquire rival Lorillard to create a behemoth aimed at conquering the
growing e-cigarette market. Recent growth in e-cigarettes, which deliver nicotine in a vapour
rather than smoke, comes as conventional cigarette sales drop amid tight consumer spending
and health concerns. The deal could remake the US tobacco market, one of the worlds most
important, with annual sales of more than $90 billion in 2013, according to research house
Euromonitor. (AFP