Los Angeles, CA: Tobacco giant RJ Reynolds has been hit with a record setting $23 billion award for punitive damages by a jury in Florida hearing a wrongful death lawsuit, which was once part of a class action.
The settlement was awarded to Cynthia Robinson, who filed the lawsuit on behalf of her deceased husband, Michael Johnson Sr. The sum is additional to $17 million she was awarded in compensatory damages.
Robinson's lawsuit was originally part of the Engle class action that resulted in a historic $145 billion verdict for smokers injured by R.J. Reynolds tobacco products and those of other tobacco companies. In 2006, the Florida Supreme Court overturned that verdict and decertified the Engle class in 2006, however the ruling allowed up to 700,000 class members to sue using the jury's findings of liability. Robinson filed her wrongful death suit in 2008.
The case is Cynthia Robinson v. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, case number 2008 CA 000098, in the Circuit Court of the First Judicial Circuit in and for Escambia County, Florida.
