
Florida jury awards widow $23.6 billion in suit against tobacco company - TheBiv
http://www.cnn.com/2014/07/19/us/florida-tobacco-verdict/index.html?c=homepage-t
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moron4hire
Someone born in 1960 started smoking in 1973, died in 1996, and his widow
filed suit in 2008. No other discussion on the particulars of the case. Given
the patent absurdity that this article presents, it really just ends up seeing
more a hatchet job against an easy target, "big tobacco".

And how could anyone be damaged to the tune of billions for anything short of
destroying entire industries?

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ColinCochrane
They were punitive damages, not compensatory damages.

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thinkpad20
Holy crap. I can't believe I'm siding with tobacco companies, but that's
absolutely absurd. First of all, it's been pretty common knowledge that
smoking tobacco is unhealthy and addictive since the 60's. No one then or now
who is smoking was doing so with ignorance. Secondly, there have been _far_
more egregious instances of wrongful death (companies who didn't tell workers
about dangerous chemicals they were exposed to, releasing toxic chemicals into
the environment causing birth defects, etc); awarding 26 billion dollars to
someone, which would put them in the top 25 richest people in the world, for a
death nearly 20 years ago... I just can't see the justification. (Meanwhile,
Ethan Couch kills four people drunk driving and goes to summer camp)

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gmuslera
Considering that the tobacco industry is responsible for 5 millon of deaths
every single year, probably all deserve the same punishment, if not life
sentence for each of their present and past managers.

Anyway, that amount and just to one... this looked like that was just a move
from one of the tobacco companies to get rid of one of their competitors.

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atomicUpdate
"If anyone saw the documents that this jury saw, I believe that person would
have awarded a similar or greater verdict amount," he said.

$23.6 billion is a lot. It would take many lifetimes for him to make that much
money or even just have a similar affect on the world around him as that much
money, so those would have to be some pretty damning documents to award that.

Though I'd be surprised if anywhere near that amount actually gets awarded.

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meric
There were only $15 million in compensatory damages. I'd say it was $23.6
million in total; i.e. it was a typo.

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TheBiv
Can any lawyers comment on the likelihood of this amount holding up in an
appeal?

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paulhauggis
If we don't have tort reform, how can we ever have legalized MJ or other
harder drugs without lawsuits like this?

