Tobacco.org

• Smoking could trigger depression 

A study of more than a thousand women has found that females who smoke are more likely to develop major depression.

Heavy smokers - those who smoke more than 20 cigarettes a day - have almost double the risk of developing diagnosable depression than non smokers.

It has long been known that people with depression are more likely to smoke, but this longterm study is one of the first to suggest the habit may be triggering mental illness.

University of Melbourne researchers tracked healthy women for more than a decade, giving them a psychiatric assessment at the end.

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First individual award against big tobacco in Arkansas is upheld 

NORTH LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - The first jury award in Arkansas for an individual against a tobacco company, for $9 million, has been upheld.

Henry Boerner, 74, said he and his family were "tickled to death" that a three-judge panel from the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis upheld the May 2003 verdict against Louisville, Ky.-based Brown & Williamson Tobacco Co., even though the higher court reduced the award from $19 million to $9 million.

"Obviously, I'm in pretty good shape for a rainy day," said Boerner, whose first wife, Mary Jane Boerner, died of smoking related illnesses in 1999 at age 69.

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• Tobacco verdict is upheld on appeal 

A North Little Rock man who lost his wife of 49 years to lung cancer celebrated a victory Friday after hearing that a federal appellate court upheld a jury verdict that a cigarette company was to blame. "Obviously, I’m in pretty good shape for a rainy day," said Henry Boerner, 74, whose first wife, Mary Jane, died at age 69 in 1999. . . .

A three-judge panel of the 8 th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis upheld a May 2003 verdict by a federal jury in Little Rock that heard the Boerners’ lawsuit against Brown & Williamson Tobacco Co.

In the first trial in Arkansas pitting an individual plaintiff against a tobacco company, jurors awarded Mary Jane Boerner’s survivors $4,025,000 in compensatory damages and $15 million in punitive damages. Jurors found that the cigarette company’s predecessor, American Tobacco Co., defectively designed Pall Malls and failed to warn smokers about the dan- gers of cigarettes before 1969, when the Federal Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act went into effect.

While upholding the verdict, the 8 th Circuit panel reduced the punitive-damages award to $5 million. That reduced the total award to $9,025,000 from $19,025,000.

But Boerner didn’t complain

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[T]he evidence indicates that American Tobacco manufactured, marketed and sold Pall Mall cigarettes containing excessively high levels of carcinogenic tar and lacking effective filter technology, for and in the state of Arkansas; untruthfully represented that cigarette smoking did not cause cancer; and actively attempted to suppress research into the harmful health consequences of cigarette smoking.
8 th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision in the Boerner case.

• BOERNER v. BROWN & WILLIAMSON 

the evidence indicates that American Tobacco manufactured, marketed, and sold Pall Mall cigarettes containing excessively high levels of carcinogenic tar and lacking effective filter technology, for and in the state of Arkansas; untruthfully represented that Pall Mall cigarettes were not unhealthy; untruthfully represented that cigarette smoking did not cause cancer; and actively attempted to suppress research into the harmful health consequences of cigarette smoking. The jury could reasonably have determined, based on this evidence and all reasonable inferences drawn therefrom, that American Tobacco acted with a conscious disregard for the safety of others. . . .

B&W contends that a punitive damages award in this case would not advance the policy objectives underlying the rule allowing for punitive damages and is therefore inappropriate. To support this contention, B&W argues as follows: the purpose of punitive damages is to punish the wrongdoer; the wrongdoer no longer exists in this case and no individuals who were in leadership positions at American Tobacco are in similar positions at B&W; and, accordingly, that there is no wrongdoer to punish. We are not persuaded. Punishment is only one of the policies underlying punitive damages. Deterrence is another.Accordingly, given the $4,025,000 compensatory damages award in this case, we conclude that a ratio of approximately 1:1 would comport with the requirements of due process. Thus, we conclude that the punitive damages award must be remitted from $15 million to $5 million. . . .

We conditionally affirm the judgment entered on the verdict, subject to Boerner’s acceptance of a remittitur judgment on the punitive damages award in the amount of $5 million. Absent his acceptance of the remittitur, we reverse and remand for a new trial on the claim for punitive damages.

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Federal Judge Upholds $19.1 Million Jury Award In Largest Successful Tobacco Case In Middle America 

On September 26, 2003, Arkansas Federal Judge James M. Moody, upheld a landmark $19.1 million jury verdict in Boerner vs. Brown and Williamson. This was the second tobacco liability case that Spohrer, Wilner, Maxwell & Matthews won against Brown and Williamson, the nation's third largest tobacco company.

Mary Jane Boerner died from lung cancer after smoking Pall Mall cigarettes for 36 years. Norwood "Woody" Wilner uncovered company documents showing that despite the fact Brown and Williamson knew nicotine was highly addictive and it had the technology to remove it, it did not.

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• $15 Million Awarded To Family Of Woman Who Died After Years Of Smoking 

A jury's award of 15 (m) million dollars in punitive damages to the family of a woman who died after decades of smoking has been restored. The punitive damages were restored in an order filed Friday by the same federal judge who had earlier disallowed the punitive award.

U-S District Judge James M- Moody also denied a request from the defendant, Brown and Williamson Tobacco Company, for a directed judgment in the company's favor, or a new trial.

On May 23rd, a federal jury in Little Rock ruled that Brown & Williamson should pay $4.25 million in actual damages plus $15 million in punitive damages. . . .

After the judgment was rendered, Brown and Williamson asked Moody to strike the punitive damages, and he did so on July Second. The plaintiffs asked him to reconsider, and he did so Friday, reversing himself.

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Tobacco class action goes up in smoke; individual and government cases proceed [Source: Trial] 

A Florida class action against tobacco manufacturers took a blow in May, but an individual suit in Arkansas was rewarded at trial, and the federal government had a big win, too.

Despite the setback in Florida, where a federal appeals court questioned the viability of class actions against the industry, the success of other tobacco litigation shows that plaintiffs still have options. The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia upheld the federal government's use of racketeering laws against tobacco manufacturers, and individual suits are still succeeding.

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• Tobacco company posts appeal bond in lawsuit 

Brown & Williamson Tobacco Co. has posted a $4.25 million bond while it appeals a jury award in a lawsuit filed by the family of a woman who died after decades of smoking.

U.S. District Judge James Moody ruled Thursday that the company does not have to pay the $4.25 million judgment while its appeal is pending, but must assure that the money is available to be paid if the appeal goes against the company.

On May 23, a federal jury in Little Rock ruled that Brown & Williamson Tobacco Co. should pay $4.25 million in actual damages plus $15 million in punitive damages for the smoking-related death of Mary Jane Boerner of North Little Rock, Ark.

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• Judge Knocks Off $15M in Smoker Lawsuit 

A federal judge has eliminated $15 million in punitive damages that a tobacco company was ordered to pay the family of a smoker.

U.S. District Judge James Moody signed an order Wednesday granting a request by Brown & Williamson Tobacco Co. to nullify punitive damages awarded in May for the death of Mary Jane Boerner.

Moody also upheld the compensatory damages award of $4.25 million.

Brown & Williamson, the nation's third largest tobacco company, had sought the order primarily on grounds that it was liable only for compensatory damages since it had simply acquired American Tobacco Co., which made the Lucky Strike and Pall Mall brands that Boerner smoked.

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TEXT-BAT rtgs unmoved by US litigation developments-S&P 

Standard & Poor's Ratings Services said today its ratings and outlook on U.K.-based international tobacco manufacturer British American Tobacco PLC BATS.L (BAT; A-/Negative/A-2) are not affected by the recent litigation developments in the U.S., including the decisions on the Boerner and Engle class action lawsuits.

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Jury awards more than $19 million in tobacco lawsuit 

An Arkansas man was awarded more than $19 million Friday after a jury found that a tobacco company's defective product contributed to his wife's death.

The federal verdict includes $15 million in punitive damages against Brown & Williamson Tobacco Co. and $4,025,000 in actual damages in the 1999 smoking-related death of Mary Jane Boerner.

The suit was first filed in June 1998 by Henry Boerner and Mary Jane Boerner. Mrs. Boerner, who had smoked for 36 years before quitting, died the following year at age 69.

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Jury: Smoker’s kin due $19 million ($$) 

The first court battle in Arkansas between an individual plaintiff and a tobacco company resulted Friday in a $19 million verdict in favor of a North Little Rock family. 

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B&W loses $19 million in verdict in Arkansas 

A federal jury in Little Rock, Ark . , yesterday returned a $19 million judgment against Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp. in the case of a woman who died of lung cancer after smoking unfiltered Pall Mall cigarettes for 36 years.

The jury said Brown & Williamson made a defective product, awarding the husband of late smoker Mary Jane Boerner $4 million in compensatory damages and $15 million in punitive damages.

Jurors found in favor of the Louisville-based tobacco company on allegations it had failed to warn Boerner about the dangers of smoking. . .

Tobacco companies and Wall Street analysts have tried to characterize successful tobacco liability lawsuits as a West Coast phenomenon, Sweda said. "This shows that rather than a matter of geography, it's a matter of history, their own history of making deadly products."

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Boerner v. B&W. Verdict Backgrounder: $19 Million Verdict Against Brown & Williamson in Arkansas Wrongful Death  Lawsuit Continues Big Tobacco's Death by a Thousand Cuts 

Edward Sweda, Senior Attorney for the Tobacco Products Liability Project at Northeastern University noted: "This is the second federal court to punish a tobacco company with a $15 million punitive damages award in the past year.  Such awards are only issued in cases where the defendant exhibits extremely reprehensible behavior."

Mark Gottlieb, also an attorney for the Tobacco Products Liability Project observed that, "while one court decertified a class action in Florida two days ago, individual cases are continuing to be filed and tried at a record rate.  Regardless of what happens in class action litigation, tobacco companies still face a death by a thousand cuts in individual cases such as the Boerner case."

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Jury rules vs Brown & Williamson in smoker case 

A Little Rock, Arkansas, jury granted a $19 million award against Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp., the maker of Kool and Pall Mall cigarettes, in a tobacco liability case, a company spokesman said on Friday.

Henry Boerner, whose wife died in 1999, was granted $15 million in punitive damages and $4 million in compensatory damages in the case against the British American Tobacco Plc (London:BATS.L) subsidiary

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