Tag: engle

Court Tosses Punitive Award Against PM

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A U.S. federal appeals court tossed out a $9 million punitive-damages award awarded by a lower court against Philip Morris USA in a case filed by a woman who suffered a smoking-related illness that led to her legs being amputated, reports The Free Press.
Donna Brown filed the lawsuit in 2007 in the federal Middle District of Florida, and a jury sided with her on claims for strict liability, negligence, fraudulent concealment and conspiracy to fraudulently conceal. It awarded Brown nearly $8.29 million in compensatory damages and $9 million in punitive damages.
In its appeal, Philip Morris pointed to a recent Florida Supreme Court opinion that said plaintiffs must show that they relied on misleading information from cigarette makers to prevail on claims for fraudulent concealment and conspiracy to fraudulently conceal.
In its June 30 ruling, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Brown had presented “insufficient evidence” to show that she relied on specific false or misleading statements by the company.
The Atlanta-based court overturned the verdicts on the fraud-related claims but upheld the verdicts against the cigarette maker on strict liability and negligence.
The lawsuit was one of thousands of cases filed against tobacco companies after a 2006 Florida Supreme Court decision established critical findings about issues such as the dangers of smoking and misrepresentation by cigarette makers. Those lawsuits are known as Engle Progeny cases.
July 2, 2022
Florida Top Court Limits Punitive Damages

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A 1999 law that limits punitive damages applies to plaintiffs in Engle progeny cases who died after that year, even though the class action was filed years before, Florida’s Supreme Court ruled on Nov. 18, according to Legal Newsline.
The verdict followed a case brought by Valton Sheffield, who was diagnosed with lung cancer and passed away in 2007. Sheffield’s widow recovered $5 million in punitive damages. Now, she will go back to the trial court for a new trial on punitive damages.
Sheffield’s widow argued that in 1994, when her husband was diagnosed, he had fully mature causes of action that were pursued by the Engle class and then by her, so the 1999 amendments didn’t apply to her.
“We disagree,” Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice Charles Canady wrote. “Because our caselaw establishes that wrongful death actions are distinct from personal injury actions and that there can be no wrongful death ‘cause of action’ absent a death, we conclude that the causes of action here arose when Mr. Sheffield passed away in 2007 and are thus plainly governed by the 1999 amendments.”
Filed in the 1990s, the Engle class action netted a huge verdict, but it was struck down in 2006. However, the liability findings against the tobacco companies were preserved as individuals were allowed to pursue their own cases afterward, as long as they filed by 2007.

December 6, 2021
Engle Lawyer Dies at 70

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Susan Rosenblatt, who with her husband and law partner, Stanley Rosenblatt, represented plaintiffs in the notorious Engle class-action lawsuit, died Nov. 14, reports The New York Times.
In the Engle case, The Rosenblatts argued that the tobacco industry had knowingly addicted smokers and failed to warn them adequately about the dangers of its products.
In 2000, a jury awarded several representative plaintiffs $12.7 million in compensatory damages and the whole class almost $145 billion in punitive damages—the largest such award in history.
In 2003 a Florida appeals panel threw it out, finding, among other things, that the case should not have been declared a class action because each smoker’s case is unique.
In 2006 the Florida Supreme Court ruled that individuals who wanted to pursue cases could invoke some of the original jury’s findings, including that smoking causes lung cancer, that nicotine in cigarettes is addictive and that the cigarette companies concealed information about smoking’s health effects.
December 6, 2021
Smoker Awarded $6 Million in Engle Progeny Case

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A jury in Jacksonville, Florida, USA, awarded a former smoker with lung disease $6 million in a case against R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., reports The Florida Times-Union.
The case is part of a crop of lawsuits filed after the Florida Supreme Court decertified a large class action, known as Engle, in 2006 and required smokers to sue individually for injuries that appeared between 1990 and 1996. The recent suit is unusual because it is uncommon for plaintiffs in those cases to be still alive.
“Many Engle case victims do not live to see case verdicts such as this one, so it’s gratifying that in this instance Mrs. Wydra is indeed here to experience justice served,” said Rod Smith, Partner, Avera & Smith, which helped secure the award, in a statement.
Born in 1947, Kathleen Wydra became a regular smoker while in high school in the early 1960s and smoked up to two packs of cigarettes per day. She quit smoking in 1998, following a diagnosis of COPD in the mid-1990s.
Jurors decided that Kathleen Wydra had been negligent in smoking and bore 35 percent of the fault for her injuries, but that R.J. Reynolds carried the other 65 percent of the blame.
They set the price of those injuries at $1.5 million for suffering, disability and harm already incurred, plus another $1.5 million for suffering still ahead of her.
They also found that R.J. Reynolds agreed to conceal information about smoking’s harmful effects or its addictive nature, and said the company should pay punitive damages, which accounted for the other $3 million judgment.
November 22, 2021
Multimillion Dollar Verdict in Engle Case

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A Florida jury returned a $43 million verdict against Philip Morris on Aug. 3 after finding the company responsible for the cancer death of a woman who had smoked the company’s Virginia Slims cigarettes, reports the Courtroom View Network.
The verdict includes $15 million in compensatory damages and $28 million in punitive damages for the 1993 lung cancer death of Norma Lipp.
Lipp had smoked between one and two packs of cigarettes a day for decades, including those of the Virginia Slims brand for 15 years.
Her family claims Philip Morris conspired to hide the dangers of smoking, hooked her to nicotine and caused her fatal cancer.
The case is among thousands that stem from Engle v. Liggett Group Inc., a 1994 Florida class-action lawsuit against the nation’s tobacco companies that led to a plaintiffs’ verdict at trial.
The state’s supreme court later decertified the class but ruled that “Engle progeny” cases may be tried individually.
September 7, 2021
Florida Supreme Court Asked to Revisit Engle

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The Florida Supreme Court will hear a case on June 2 that could make it harder to successfully sue cigarette makers, reports the Tampa Bay Times.
While the case focuses on an issue involving allegations that the tobacco industry conspired to conceal information about smoking, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. and Philip Morris USA want to use the case to convince justices to reconsider the underlying 2006 decision that spurred roughly 8,000 “Engle progeny” cases, many of which are still tied up in court.
In 2019, a Florida appeals court overturned a $6.4 million award to the estate of John C. Price, who started smoking at age 12 and died at age 74 of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The appeals court objected to the way in which the jury had been instructed to weigh the evidence and ordered a new trial.
The ruling centered on a claim of conspiracy to conceal information about the dangers of smoking. The appeals court agree with R.J. Reynolds that the estate needed to show that Price relied to his “detriment” on a statement that concealed or omitted information.
While the outcome of the conspiracy issue could affect numerous Engle progeny cases, R.J. Reynolds and Philip Morris also have asked the Supreme Court to go beyond the appeals court ruling and revisit the 2006 decision. They have been backed by the Florida Justice Reform Institute, a group that lobbies the legislature and becomes involved in court cases to try to limit lawsuits.
The tobacco companies’ arguments come after a significant change at the Supreme Court since January 2019, when three liberal-leaning justices retired and were replaced by justices appointed by Republican Governor Ron DeSantis.
May 28, 2021