Tobacco.org

• Missouri high court hears arguments in tobacco case 

The Missouri Supreme Court heard arguments Wednesday in a wrongful-death case involving the Brown & Williamson tobacco company and a Jackson County family who won a $20 million verdict.

A Jackson County jury in 2005 awarded Lincoln Smith $20 million to punish the company, plus $2 million for injuries, after his wife, Barbara Smith, died of a heart attack at 73 in 2000.

The $2 million was cut down to $500,000 after the jury decided that Barbara Smith was 75 percent responsible. She had smoked Kool cigarettes for nearly 50 years.

The case was sent to the Supreme Court after an appeals court ruling last summer in which a three-judge panel found evidence of wrongdoing by the company, but ordered a new trial to reconsider punitive damages.

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