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Reynolds Ordered to Pay $250,000 to Smoker's Family (Update1) 

Reynolds American Inc., the second- largest U.S. tobacco company, must pay $250,000 in punitive damages to the family of a woman who died of lung cancer at the age of 40, a San Francisco Jury determined.

The verdict came today in a wrongful death lawsuit brought by the family of Leslie Whiteley, a Californian who died in 2000, according to Madelyn Chaber, a lawyer for Whiteley's family. On May 2 the jury ordered Reynolds and Altria Group Inc.'s Philip Morris USA, the world's largest publicly traded tobacco company, to pay $2.6 million in compensatory damages to Whiteley's husband. . . .

The punitive award against Reynolds was for acting with malice by falsely promising that it didn't know cigarettes caused lung cancer and that it would conduct scientific research to find out. The jury found both companies intentionally and negligently misrepresented the dangers of cigarettes and made false promises, according to the jury verdict form.

Only Reynolds American was subject to punitive damages because only eight of the 12 jurors found Philip Morris acted with malice.

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