Eleventh Circuit Court Rules Against Tobacco Companies

Eleventh Circuit Court Rules Against Tobacco Companies

Introduction

The United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit denied an appeal made by R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. and Philip Morris USA Inc. over a $41 million jury award given to a former smoker whose decades-long habit allegedly led to pulmonary disease.

The lawsuit was filed by a Florida resident against the tobacco companies claiming them responsible for his Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD).

The initial verdict was given in October 2014, in the federal court in Florida. The jury had awarded $15.8 million in compensatory damages and punitive damages in the amounts of $15.7 million against Philip Morris and $9.6 million against R.J. Reynolds.

Judge Jill Pryor for the appeals court reduced the compensatory award to $12.8 million, reflecting the plaintiff's fault. She also said that the $25.3 million punitive awards, whether viewed as 1.6 times the full compensatory award or twice the reduced amount, are within constitutional bounds.

Earlier, in a landmark judgment, the Quebec appeals court ordered three tobacco companies to pay more than $11 billion to Canadian smokers who claimed in two class action lawsuits that they were never informed about the risks of smoking.

This judgment upholds a lower court's 2015 ruling that subsidiaries of Philip Morris International Inc., Japan Tobacco Inc., and British American Tobacco PLC are liable for CA$15.6 billion ($11.27 billion) with interest to Quebecois smokers and former smokers who developed smoking-related disease or addiction. The subsidiary companies, Imperial Tobacco, JTI-Macdonald and Rothmans, and Benson & Hedges had appealed the lower court's ruling that found them choosing personal profits over customers' health.

A lawyer representing the smokers who filed the class action called the verdict as a complete victory for the victims. The appeals court concluded that the tobacco companies handled not disclosing adequate information about their cigarettes since the 1950s and promoted a campaign of disinformation by revolting to the warnings others made about cigarette smoking. The non-profit Quebec Council on Tobacco and Health indicated the total amount to be paid would be nearly $17 million in Canadian dollars ($12.24 billion USD), including interest added since 2015.