Smoking Verdict Thrown Out in Florida

Smoking Verdict Thrown Out in Florida

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A state appellate court on Wednesday sledgehammered the record $145 billion punitive-damage judgment against the tobacco industry, concluding that a Miami judge should never have allowed a vast group of Florida smokers to present their complaints collectively at trial in 2000.

The Third District Court of Appeal ruled that Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Robert Kaye erred by letting a jury hear the first-ever smokers' class-action lawsuit. The reason: Each of the estimated 700,000 plaintiffs had different smoking and medical histories.

In other words, each smoker should first have to win an individual claim for compensatory damages for illnesses such as lung cancer before joining a class action to seek punitive damages. Legal experts say such a process could take decades for everyone.