Tweet A Bronson, Florida (Levy County) jury today awarded $8 million in compensatory damages and another $72 million in punitive damages against R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company for its role in the lung cancer death of James Kayce Horner. Mr. Horner, who started smoking at the age of 17 in 1934 (decades before warning labels appeared on cigarette packages), smoked for over 60 years before dying of lung cancer on March 11, 1996, at the age of 78. The ... Jump to full article >>

Tweet Cigarette maker Philip Morris USA’s bag of defenses against thousands of smoker lawsuits in Florida may include the fear of having to pay the company’s legal fees. Yesterday, a former smoker in Florida dropped his lawsuit against the Henrico County-based tobacco company and took a $1,000 settlement instead. The plaintiff, Jerome Cohen, accepted the settlement after only two days of trial in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. His attorney, Ph ... Jump to full article >>