JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Attorneys for Reynolds American Inc. said the company should not be required to pay $20 million in damages to the husband of a Kansas City-area woman who died of a heart attack in 2000 after smoking for nearly 50 years.
According to an Associated Press report, a Jackson County, Mo. jury in 2005 awarded Lincoln Smith $20 million in punitive damages, plus $2 million for injuries, in a suit he brought against then-Brown & Williamson Tobacco Co. in the death of his wife, Barbara. Barbara Smith had smoked Kool cigarettes for nearly five decades prior to suffering [image-nocss] a fatal heart attack. The $2 million was reduced to $500,000 after the jury decided Barbara Smith was 75% responsible for her own death.
An attorney for the tobacco company, Andrew McGaan, said many claims in Lincoln Smith's lawsuit were the same as ones a judge previously rejected in an unsuccessful lawsuit filed by his wife, Barbara, before she died. Both suits accused Brown & Williamson of causing the woman's respiratory and heart diseases and failing to warn about smoking dangers. McGaan told AP a federal judge's ruling against many of the claims in the initial lawsuit should trump the wrongful death case in state court.
"A Missouri federal court, applying Missouri law to the identical failure-to-warn claims and many of the identical disease claims here, fully and finally adjudicated them against the decedent and in favor of B&W," McGaan said in a written argument to the court.
But an attorney representing Lincoln Smith said a deal between the tobacco company and the Smith family keeps the door open for another lawsuit. Ken McClain said the agreement, which had been signed by a federal judge, called for the family to dismiss the initial lawsuit as long as Brown & Williamson promised not to use that to defend against a future wrongful death claim, according to the AP report. McGann, meanwhile, claims the agreement is not as broad as McClain claims it is and that the high court shouldn't consider the deal anyway because it wasn't mentioned during the initial trial or when a lower appeals court reviewed the verdict. The Missouri Supreme Court generally evaluates only facts already entered into evidence before lower courts.
"It's terribly unfair to be starting with new facts at this stage," McGaan said.
But Judge William Ray Price Jr. said the terms of that agreement seem to be a focal point of the case, especially if a judge signed off on it. "It's an agreement," he said, "but it also has a federal judge's signature on it."
Missouri Chief Justice Laura Denvir Stith and Judge Patricia Breckenridge recused themselves from the case. Judges are not required to explain why they step down from cases.
Although much of the argument focused on the two lawsuits, the company also urged the Supreme Court to toss out the verdict and money awards because the evidence was insufficient. The company's arguments included that Kool cigarettes are not more dangerous than other brands and that Barbara Smith would have continued smoking no matter what warning labels were present.
The initial verdict came down as Missouri lawmakers debated legislation intended to curtail big jury awards in personal injury and wrongful death cases. Governor Matt Blunt and Republican legislators decried the award in Smith's case as excessive.
As it winds through the courts, the case has again prompted lawmakers to take notice, AP said. State Senator Jason Crowell (R) filed legislation last month that would bar wrongful death lawsuits when a separate lawsuit filed by that individual already has been settled.
Brown & Williamson became part of Winston-Salem, N.C.-based Reynolds American in 2004.
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