| pIn what is believed to be the largest single plaintiff award to dateagainst a tobacco company, a Florida jury awarded $300 million incompensatory and punitive damages to a former smoker who filed alawsuit against Philip Morris USA over her emphysema. span id=more-7058/span/ppCindy Naugle, 61, was awarded $56.6 million for past and futuremedical expenses, as well as pain and suffering. The jury from BrowardCounty Circuit Court also levied a $244 million punitive damage awardagainst the tobacco company. /ppNaugle, who said that she began smoking in 1968 to make herself lookolder, alleged that she would have never started smoking if she hadknown of the potential health effects. The smoker’s lawsuit claimedthat the tobacco companies knew smoking caused a variety of lungdiseases, but kept those side effects hidden./ppAs a result of smoking for about 25 years, Naugle claimed that shesuffers from emphysema, requires around-the-clock oxygen and isconfined to a wheelchair due to how easily she is winded. The juryfound her to be 10% responsible for her own condition, meaning thatwhile Philip Morris is responsible for all of the punitive damages; itis only responsible for 90% of the compensatory damages./pdiv style=border: 0px none ; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: absolute; top: 126px; left: 519px; line-height: normal; background-color: transparent; z-index: 99999; width: 70px; height: 46px; visibility: hidden id=rank_jit_com_maindiv style=visibility: inherit;table style=border-style: none solid solid none; border-color: -moz-use-text-color rgb(224, 224, 224) rgb(224, 224, 224) -moz-use-text-color; border-width: 0px 1px 1px 0px; margin: 0pt; padding: 0px; width: 70px; height: 36px; background-color: transparent; font-family: Lucida Grande,sans-serif; font-size: 9px; z-index: 200000; border-collapse: separate; visibility: inherit cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0tbodytr style=background-color: transparenttd style=border-style: none none solid; border-color: -moz-use-text-color -moz-use-text-color rgb(224, 224, 224); border-width: 0px 0px 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; height: 16px; background-color: transparent; text-align: center; vertical-align: middle; visibility: inherit;div style=border: 0pt none ; margin: 0pt; padding: 0pt; background-color: transparent /div/tdtd style=border-style: solid none solid solid; border-color: rgb(224, 224, 224) -moz-use-text-color rgb(224, 224, 224) rgb(224, 224, 224); border-width: 1px 0px 1px 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; width: 20px; height: 16px; text-align: center; vertical-align: middle; background-color: white; visibility: inherit colspan=2 align=centerimg id=rank_jit_pin style=border: 0px none ; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; display: inline; cursor: pointer; width: 16px; height: 16px; vertical-align: bottom; visibility: inherit; background-color: transparent; src=http://www.rankjit.com/extension/img/pin.gif/td/trtr style=border-style: solid none none; border-color: rgb(224, 224, 224) -moz-use-text-color -moz-use-text-color; border-width: 1px 0px 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: white; visibility: inherittd style=border-style: none none none solid; border-color: -moz-use-text-color -moz-use-text-color -moz-use-text-color rgb(224, 224, 224); border-width: 0px 0px 0px 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-family: Lucida Grande,sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 9px; font-weight: normal; text-align: center; vertical-align: middle; height: 10px; background-color: white; visibility: inherit; align=centerPage rank/tdtd style=border-style: none none none solid; border-color: -moz-use-text-color -moz-use-text-color -moz-use-text-color rgb(224, 224, 224); border-width: 0px 0px 0px 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-family: Lucida Grande,sans-serif; text-align: center; vertical-align: middle; background-color: white; border-spacing: 1px; font-size: 14px; width: 20px; height: 20px; color: white; visibility: inherit rowspan=2 align=center valign=middlediv style=border: 0px none ; margin: 1px; padding: 0px; width: 20px; height: 20px; background-color: rgb(132, 132, 132); visibility: inherit;div id=rank_jit_resultContainer style=border: 0px none ; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: transparent; width: 20px; height: 20px; line-height: 20px; vertical-align: middle; color: white; visibility: inherit; text-align: center5/div/div/td/trtrtd style=border-style: none none none solid; border-color: -moz-use-text-color -moz-use-text-color -moz-use-text-color rgb(224, 224, 224); border-width: 0px 0px 0px 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; height: 10px; vertical-align: middle; background-color: white; visibility: inherit align=centerdiv style=border: 1px solid rgb(224, 224, 224); margin: 0px 0px 1px 1px; padding: 0px; width: 38px; height: 4px; visibility: inherit;div id=rank_jit_gradientContainer style=border: 0px none ; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; width: 19px; height: 4px; float: left; background-color: rgb(0, 153, 51); visibility: inherit/div/div/td/tr/tbody/table/divdiv style=border: 0pt none ; margin: 0pt; padding: 0pt; overflow: hidden; z-index: 9999; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-family: trebuchet ms,arial,helvetica,sans-serif; float: none; position: absolute; left: auto; top: 39.5px; line-height: normal; background-color: transparent; visibility: inherit; width: 10px; height: 10px; right: 50pximg style=border: 0pt none ; margin: 0pt; padding: 0pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-family: trebuchet ms,arial,helvetica,sans-serif; float: none; position: absolute; left: 0px; top: 0px; line-height: normal; background-color: transparent; visibility: inherit; z-index: 99999; src=http://www.rankjit.com/extension/img/pointer.gif/div/div |
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