A Palm Beach County jury has awarded the widow of a man who died from complications from smoking $2 million in punitive damages, representing another victory for plaintiffs in so-called “Engle progeny” cases.
The jurors ordered R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. to pay the damages award to Judith Spurlock, 81, whose husband, Lloyd, died in 2013. And once the court calculates compensatory damages, costs, attorney fees and interest, the total amount could rise threefold, according to Richard John Diaz, one of Spurlock’s attorneys.
“It will be a $6-plus-million payday,” Diaz told the Florida Record.
“Engle progeny” cases came out of a disbanded class action lawsuit involving thousands of tobacco users. More than a decade ago, the Florida Supreme Court required individual smokers in the class to file separate legal claims to get compensation, but the court left in place a presumption that tobacco firms had concealed information on the health dangers of tobacco use and marketed an addictive product to consumers.
Diaz’s team is pleased with the June 14 verdict in the 15th Judicial Circuit, but he characterized the award as being within the average of such tobacco verdicts in recent times. The COVID-19 pandemic, as well as political divisions and social frustrations, have tended to produce juries less sympathetic to the plaintiffs’ situations, according to Diaz.
“I think all of those things, if you put them on a scale, they favor low verdicts,” he said, noting that plaintiffs in the Engle progeny cases have won about 60 percent of the verdicts that have come down. “These Engle cases are not going to destroy or take down the industry.”
Another wildcard in the outcome of future Engle progeny cases involves the state’s high court, which is taking another look at these cases and whether the original legal determinations about fraudulent concealment charges made more than a decade ago should still hold.
But DIaz said that even if the court puts up more hurdles for plaintiffs who have filed such lawsuits against tobacco companies, attorneys will still have strong cases to put before juries.
“This may weed out cases on the borderline,” he said. “... In the long run, I don’t think it’s going to make any difference.”