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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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