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Judge Awards $15 Mln. in Punitive Damages [06/24-3]

Excerpts from: Judge Awards $15M in Tobacco Case

By: Amy Shafer, Staff Writer http://www.ap.com [06-22-02]

KANSAS CITY, Kan. –– David Burton, who claims he lost both his legs due to 43 years of smoking Camel cigarettes, was awarded $15 million in a punitive-damages judgment against R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.

The order Friday by U.S. District Court Judge John W. Lungstrum followed a jury verdict in February in which Burton was awarded compensatory damages of $196,416.

Burton, 67, of Kansas City, Kan., sued Reynolds in 1994 and alleged the company hid the dangers of smoking from the public even though it knew cigarettes were dangerous.

Burton smoked from 1950, when he was a teen, until 1993, when a circulatory disease forced doctors to amputate his legs.

R.J. Reynolds called the award "excessive and unwarranted." The tobacco company argued that Burton's health problems had more to do with his poor eating habits and his drinking, and said the dangers of tobacco were well-known when he started smoking.

Burton said he was pleased with the award, but "receiving it is another thing, because it'll probably be another two years. Ten years I've been waiting, almost, just to go to court."

Lungstrum said Reynolds' concealment of the addictiveness of cigarettes was "particularly nefarious."

"The evidence does not reflect that Reynolds has repented of its ways. Its only grudging – and questionably sincere – concessions to the scientific evidence have been wrung from it through settlements of hotly contested lawsuits," the judge said.

"It persists in its free-choice mantra. Reynolds has not even said in any sincere and convincing fashion that it is sorry for what it did or what happened to Mr. Burton."

He added: "In many respects, this is the most disturbing aspect of this case and one which merits stiff punishment."

Lungstrum wrote that Reynolds' wealth – $1 billion in cash – justified the large punitive award. "There can be no question that Reynolds can afford to pay the maximum award authorized by law," the order stated.

Though smoker lawsuits against tobacco companies are common, only a few plaintiffs have ever won against the tobacco industry.

Other verdicts have been far larger. A jury in California awarded a cancer patient $3 billion last summer; that was later reduced to $100 million. In March, a jury in Oregon ordered $150 million in punitive damages over the death of a smoker from lung cancer.

Most recently, a Miami jury on Tuesday ordered cigarette makers Philip Morris, Brown & Williamson and the Liggett Group to pay $37.5 million to a man who lost his tongue to cancer.

However, the Tobacco Products Liability Project, a Boston-based organization that coordinates lawsuits against the industry, said Friday marked the first time a federal judge had awarded punitive damages against a tobacco company.

Edward J. Sweda Jr., an attorney for the group, said Lungstrum "saw through Reynolds' smoke screen and recognized its behavior for what it is: egregious and outrageous wrongdoing that had a devastating impact on David Burton, as well as other residents of Kansas."

R.J. Reynolds attorney Sydney McDole called Burton an "independent, strong-willed man" who "knew alcohol was bad for him, yet he drank a lot of whiskey and beer."

McDole also said tobacco's dangers were known before Burton began smoking in 1950. And she pointed out that a health warning was printed on every pack of cigarettes he bought after 1966.