Smoker's widow awarded $20 million
Award against tobacco company is first by New York state jury
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NEW YORK (AP) -- The widow of a longtime smoker killed by lung cancer was awarded $20 million in punitive damages Friday, though her ability to collect more than half the verdict remained in question.
A state Supreme Court jury deliberated over parts of two days before deciding on its award for Gladys Frankson, whose late husband, Harry, began smoking in 1954 at the age of 13. Harry Frankson, who repeatedly tried to quit his habit, died in 1999.
The case had marked the first time in New York state history that a jury awarded damages against a tobacco company, lawyers said.
The jury found Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp., which makes Lucky Strike cigarettes, liable for $8 million. It also found two defunct industry groups, the Council for Tobacco Research and the Tobacco Institute Inc., liable for $6 million apiece.
Frankson's lawyers said any estimate at how much might be collected from the two dissolved industry groups would only be a guess. But their client was nevertheless thrilled.
"It's great, a very sweet win," said Gladys Frankson after the verdict. "Nothing's going to replace my husband. But to win the case against the item that killed him is very satisfying to me."
Brown & Williamson attorney Gareth Cooper said in a statement that the company was confident the verdict would be reversed on appeal.
"The verdict is outrageous," he said.
New York could see a surge in tobacco litigation as a result of Friday's decision and a recent state decision making it easier to argue that cigarette companies deceived smokers, said Mark Gottlieb of the Tobacco Products Liability Project, a nonprofit group that supports tobacco litigation.
"This one broke through," Gottlieb said. "They tend to come in clusters in states that seem receptive."
On December 18, the jury had awarded Frankson $350,000 in compensatory damages following a six-week trial. Her husband, an airline industry employee, had smoked unfiltered Lucky Strike cigarettes for decades.
Frankson had initially sought $400 million in compensatory damages. After that phase of the trial, Brown & Williamson said it planned an appeal.
Brown & Williamson is the nation's third-largest cigarette manufacturer and marketer, behind Philip Morris USA Inc. and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco. Brown & Williamson produces the Lucky Strike, Kent, Barclay, Capri, Kool and Pall Mall brands.
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