Florida jury awards $23 Billion against RJ Reynolds

[DavenRoxy 1,073]

ORLANDO Fla. (Reuters) - A Florida jury has awarded the widow of a chain smoker who died of lung cancer punitive damages of more than $23 billion in her lawsuit against the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, the nation's second-biggest cigarette maker.

The judgment, returned on Friday night, was the largest in Florida history in a wrongful death lawsuit filed by a single plaintiff, according to Ryan Julison, a spokesman for the woman's lawyer, Chris Chestnut.

The guy smoked 1-3 packs of cicigarettes for 20 years. And now his family gets to live like billionaires. Only in America...

http://news.yahoo.com/florida-jury-awards-23-billion-punitive-damages-against-223205116--finance.html

[lostinblue 1,989]

The amount will get overturned.

[spookyturtle 9,465]

The amount will get overturned.

Agreed. They'll probably get the $7.3 and $9.6 million. $23 billion is an idiotic amount.

[DavenRoxy 1,073]

Doesn't matter if it gets overturned. The fact they got more than $1 is nothing short of ridiculous. Seagrams or Budweiser don't have to pay when a drunk wipes out a family. The guy chose to smoke, smoking can cause lung cancer. Why should RJR have to pay his family?

[rlogan 2,036]

It didn't go far enough. What about the people who had the responsibility to stop him from smoking? Like his family. Sue his family. What about the farmers? The Indians too - they started this whole tobacco thing and got the colonists into it.

[spookyturtle 9,465]

Doesn't matter if it gets overturned. The fact they got more than $1 is nothing short of ridiculous. Seagrams or Budweiser don't have to pay when a drunk wipes out a family. The guy chose to smoke, smoking can cause lung cancer. Why should RJR have to pay his family?

I agree. I'm not sure if this goes back before the disclosure law, there was a time when the cigarette companies didn't have to list the ingredients they put in their products and they put other harmful chemicals in that got people hooked, not just the nicotine. Perhaps that's why the judgment was awarded? But regardless, responsibility lies with the smoker. I know if I eat d-Con or drink bleach it may harm me. We're not talking about an usupervised child here.

[The Nature Boy 4,224]

Agreed. They'll probably get the $7.3 and $9.6 million. $23 billion is an idiotic amount.

And the D-bag lawyers will make fat bank

[We Keep Receipts 9,238]

I'm pretty sure the minds here at VJ can come up with something to sue big business for. Whatever you figure out, I want my cut.

[unsmiley 111]

Nobody is personally responsible for anything anymore. Mindset is always "somebody else" has to pay. We are going down the toilet.

[spookyturtle 9,465]

Nobody is personally responsible for anything anymore. Mindset is always "somebody else" has to pay. We are going down the toilet.

Especially conservatives, they blame liberals for everything.

[The Nature Boy 4,224]

Especially conservatives, they blame liberals for everything.

That is such BS. Sometimes we blame blacks and Muslims and furernears also

[spookyturtle 9,465]

That is such BS. Sometimes we blame blacks and Muslims and furernears also

Especially gay, black, Muslim liberals from up North.