A 92 year-old Florida man was awarded $1.9 million in compensatory damages for the death of his Wife, who smoked 2 packs-a-day since she was 16. The Marlboro-preferring lady died of lung cancer in her 70′s. The jury actually found damages of $5.3 million, but that tobacco bigwig and cigarette maker Phillip-Morris was only 36.5% at fault. The other 63.5% was attributed to the lady’s choice and desire to continue smoking. You think?

This case came after the Florida Supreme Court decertified a class-action suit, leaving thousands of individual plaintiffs. To streamline things a bit, the Court adopted some factional findings from the precedent Engle case, so that they “don’t have to start from square one in each of these cases,” said Ed Sweda, a lawyer for the Tobacco Products Liability Project in Boston, Massachusetts.

There are still over 150 similar Engle cases pending.

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Tags | jury awards, litigation, tobacco litigation