A Miami-Dade Circuit Court jury handed down a $28 million verdict against R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. in a lawsuit brought on behalf of a smoker who died of lung cancer after smoking cigarettes since he was 11.
The awards included $25 million in punitive damages and $3 million in compensatory damages for the estate of David Ellsworth, who died in 1994 at 60. The jury split the fault evenly between Ellsworth and RJR, but the amount of the award was not affected because the jury found the company acted intentionally, plaintiffs attorney Allan B. Kaiser said.
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