Court Overturns Award in Smoker Case

A Florida appeals court has overturned a judgment of nearly $1 million against Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp., ordering a different court to hear the case that resulted in the largest jury award ever to a family of a sick smoker and the first punitive damages ever against a tobacco company. Florida’s 1st District Court of Appeal ordered the Circuit Court for Duval County to vacate the jury judgment, set aside the verdict and transfer the case to Palm Beach County or Broward County. The court ruled that the case, brought by the family of smoker Roland Maddox, who died of lung cancer in 1997, should have been held in Florida’s Palm Beach or Broward counties, rather than in Jacksonville. Louisville, Ky.-based Brown & Williamson had sought the transfer to Palm Beach, where Maddox lived. The jury in Jacksonville awarded the Maddox family compensatory and punitive damages after deciding that Brown & Williamson was liable on charges of negligence, producing a defective product and conspiring to commit fraud. Stephanie Hartley, an attorney for the Maddox family, said an appeal is likely.