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In the first-ever punitive damage award against a tobacco company assessed by a judge, rather than by a jury, the first-ever such award in federal court and the first-ever such award in the Midwest, United States District Judge John W. Lungstrum today assessed $15,000,000 in punitive damages against the nation's second largest cigarette manufacturer, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., for its "extremely reprehensible" conduct in the case of Burton v. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. The plaintiff, David Burton, brought a product liability case in federal court in Kansas City, Kansas, claiming that the company's cigarettes caused his peripheral vascular disease ("PVD") which necessitated the amputation of both of his legs. After trial, a jury on February 22, 2002 awarded Mr. Burton $196,416 in compensatory damages. Under Kansas law, the judge rather than the jury decides the amount of punitive damages. A hearing on the issue of punitive damages was held on May 16, 2002 before Judge Lungstrum, who issued his ruling this morning. Among Judge Lungstrum's findings were the following: "[I]t is not for making a dangerous product that defendant [RJR] should be punished. It is for concealing how dangerous the product is that R.J. Reynolds merits punishment." "Here, the insidious nature of Reynolds' fraudulent concealment lies not only in the evidence of its bare failure to disclose vital information but also in the evidence of its campaign to obscure the public's ability to appreciate the risks of smoking by attacking the credibility of the public health community's concerns while at the same time withholding and ignoring evidence which was within its control that would have made the truth available to consumers."
"The evidence does not reflect that
Reynolds has repented of its ways. Its only
grudging-and-questionably-sincere-concessions to the scientific evidence
have been wrung from it through settlements of hotly contested lawsuits. It
persists in its free choice mantra. Reynolds has not even said in any
sincere and convincing fashion that it is sorry for what it did or for what
happened to Mr. Burton. In many respects, this is the most disturbing aspect
of this case and one which merits stiff punishment." "Judge Lungstrum saw through Reynolds' smokescreen and recognized its behavior for what it is: egregious and outrageous wrongdoing that had a devastating impact on David Burton, as well as other residents of Kansas," said Edward L. Sweda, Jr., Senior Attorney for the Tobacco Products Liability Project, which is based at Northeastern University School of Law in Boston. Mr. Sweda, who attended the punitive damage hearing in Kansas City last month, noted that Judge Lungstrum specifically stated that his ruling was limited to Reynolds' conduct within the State of Kansas and that, according to the opinion, the court "did not consider the interests of other states in punishing and deterring such conduct. Had the court done so, it would have had a compelling basis to award punitive damages far in excess of $15 million." "Today's historic ruling underscores the reality that, regarding tobacco litigation, the major tobacco companies are not facing a 'West Coast' problem; they face a reprehensibility problem. Rather than being a matter of geography, the tobacco companies' litigation problems derive from their own sordid history of corporate wrongdoing, a history accurately and powerfully described by Judge Lungstrum in today's ruling," Sweda said. Today's ruling is the fifth major setback for the tobacco industry's litigation position in the past two and one-half weeks. On June 5, the Oregon Court of Appeals reinstated a $79.5 million punitive damage award against Philip Morris on behalf of a longtime Marlboro smoker who died of cancer. The following day, a California Superior Court judge imposed a $20 million fine against R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. after finding that the company's advertising and marketing for cigarettes were targeted at youth, in violation of the 1998 Multistate settlement agreement. On June 11, a Miami jury awarded $37.5 million against Philip Morris, Lorillard and Brown & Williamson Tobacco Co. on behalf of John Lukacs, a man who is suffering from cancer of the bladder and the tongue. On June 18, another Miami jury returned a $5.5 million award against the major cigarette manufacturers on behalf of a flight attendant whose chronic sinusitis was found to have been caused by exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke. -- ## --
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