Pleasantville Strategic Planning and Revitalization Committee

Smoker's widow gets $6.3M in damages

Feb 24, 2009

National/World
Smoker's widow gets $6.3M in damages

Wednesday, February 18, 2009 | 2:52 PM

FORT LAUDERDALE, FL -- A Florida jury has ordered Philip Morris to pay $6.3 million in damages to the widow of a smoker who died of lung cancer in a case that could set a standard for some 8,000 similar lawsuits in the state.
The six jurors returned the award Wednesday for Elaine Hess for the 1997 death of her husband Stuart Hess. He had been a chain smoker for decades.

The award amounts to $1.3 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages against Richmond, Va.-based Philip Morris USA, a unit of Altria Group. Hess's attorneys sought $130 million.

The case was the first to go to trial since the Florida Supreme Court in 2006 voided a $145 billion class-action award for smoking victims. The court said each case had to be decided individually.