MIAMI (Legal Newsline) – R.J. Reynolds has defeated claims for punitive damages in one of the so-called Engle cases in Florida in which plaintiffs can blame tobacco companies for health problems.
Joyce Hardin claims smoking caused her husband to develop COPD and pass in 2012, but the Third District Court of Appeal ruled Aug. 5 that punitive damages weren’t in order.
R.J. Reynolds has already been ordered to pay $100,880 after a jury found it 13% liable for Thomas Hardin’s health problems. The jury ruled for Joyce Hardin’s strict liability and product liability claims, leading to that compensatory damages award.
Videotaped evidence of a doctor and tobacco expert who never treated Thomas Hardin was submitted during a second trial in support of the claim for punitive damages.
“(T)he first jury returned a defense verdict on Plaintiff’s intentional tort claims, and the second jury was bound by the first jury’s finding that Mr. Hardin did not rely on any statement made by R.J. Reynolds or any other tobacco company,” Judge Norma Lindsey wrote.
“Consequently, although Dr. Proctor presented similar evidence that tobacco companies engaged in a campaign of mass deception and fraud, this generic evidence of misconduct was not related to Plaintiff’s surviving product liability claims and not intentional tort claims.”