R.J. Reynolds and Philip Morris were hit with a $42.5 million total verdict in a retrial over the 1996 cancer death of a Florida smoker. Gloger v. R.J. Reynolds and Philip Morris, 2011-CA-23377.
The award includes $15 million in compensatory damages as well as an $11 million punitive award imposed against Philip Morris and $16.5 million in punitive damages imposed against Reynolds for the responsibility jurors found the companies bore for Irene Gloger’s lung cancer.
Gloger, who had smoked for decades, died at 47, about a year after she quit smoking. Her family contends a tobacco industry-wide conspiracy to hide the dangers of smoking throughout much of the 20th century hooked Gloger to cigarettes and ultimately led to her fatal cancer.
