Altria Must Pay $8 Million in Florida Smoker’s Death - Bloomberg

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Altria Must Pay $8 Million in Florida Smoker’s Death
[SIZE=-1]Bloomberg[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]18 (Bloomberg) -- Altria Group Inc., the biggest US cigarette maker, must pay $8 million to the family of a smoker who died of lung cancer, a Florida jury ruled in the first of 8000 individual cases to go to trial in the state. ...[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]Widow awarded $8 million in tobacco trial [SIZE=-1]Trading Markets (press release)[/SIZE][/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]Fla. Smoker's Widow Seeks $130M From Company [SIZE=-1]KDKA[/SIZE][/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]Tobacco giant Philip Morris to pay $8m to smoker’’s widow [SIZE=-1]Newspost Online[/SIZE][/SIZE]
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[Zebra]

I'm not surprised......cigarette companies are an easy target. I'll bet all the members of the jury were self-righteous non-smokers. Maybe these companies should have each smoker sign a statement that they KNOW cigarettes are harmful and can cause death.

 

[sherid]

I believe there are some unintended consequences of this verdict. First, she asked for $130 million. She got $8 million, an amount that could be cut further in appeals. Secondly, the ruling was based upon declaring the smoker an addict who could not control his smoking even as he was dying. Smokers have now been found, through this legal precedent, to have a physical addiction. Add to that a scientific claim that there is a gene that makes people into smokers. Like alcoholics, smokers can now be protected through ADA. That is important if it does happen, for employers would no longer be permitted to discriminate by not hiring smokers or by making them pay more than other employees for insurance (like diabetics cannot be forced to pay more). Nor would employees be permitted to fire employees for smoking off the job. ADA would offer many options to protect smokers from further discrimination. There are attorneys who have been waiting for something like this to happen. Now it has, albeit in a very unintended way.