A Miami jury yesterday ordered Big Tobacco to pay $12.7 million to three smokers, opening the door to a billion-dollar verdict that cigarette makers say could bankrupt them.
The jury in the landmark case awarded $2.85 million in compensatory damages to Mary Farnan and $4.023 million to the estate of Angie Della Vecchia, who died last year.
“Everyone should be happy with what happened,” said Farnan.
“My wife is looking over us,” said Della Vecchia’s husband, Frank, his eyes brimming with tears.
The jury also awarded $5.8 million to Frank Amodeo, but said he might not be able to collect because a four-year statute of limitations on his claim had expired.
The judge said he would decide how to handle that award.
“I’m smiling, I’m smiling, I’m smiling,” said Amodeo.
The closely watched case was the first class-action smokers’ case to come to trial.
The award of compensatory damages sets the stage for the punitive phase of the trial, in which Big Tobacco could be forced to pay a whopping $300 billion for some 500,000 sick Florida smokers.
Cigarette makers say such an award could force them into bankruptcy.
The industry is currently saddled with a $246 billion settlement of suits brought by the states.
Matt Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, said the award “augurs very badly for the tobacco industry at the next phase because the verdict is exceptionally large.”
But Dan Webb, the lead tobacco lawyer, said, “We’re looking forward to trying the next phase of this case.
“We have never believed this jury would award a large amount of damages to thousands of unidentified smokers.”
The three smokers had asked for $13.2 million in compensatory damages: a total of $4.2 million in medical costs and $3 million each for pain and suffering.
The jury, which deliberated for more than two days, heard the life stories and microscopic details of cancer in the three plaintiffs.
Farnan, a 44-year-old nurse, suffers from lung cancer that has spread to her brain. Amodeo is a 60-year-old clockmaker, has throat cancer, which forces him to use a feeding tube.
Della Vecchia, a housewife from New Port Richey, died at 53 of lung cancer that had spread to her brain.
Both women started smoking at 11. Della Vecchia smoked for 40 years and Farnan for 29. Amodeo started smoking at 14 and kept it up for 34 years.
The jury, which began hearing the case 18 months ago, ruled last July that the industry fraudulently conspired to produce a dangerous, addictive product that caused 29 illnesses, including cancer and heart disease.
The defendants are Philip Morris., R.J. Reynolds, Brown & Williamson, Lorillard Tobacco, Liggett Group and the industry’s Council for Tobacco Research and Tobacco Institute.