What was the matter with the jury?!
Stupid jury and emotional verdict.
low info voters jury I wonder???
I used to smoke. Where do I sign up for my billions?
What kind of a stupid jury is that? The original awards were plenty, but I guess they just want Reynolds to “get the message.”
I’ve argued many times with libs about everyone having a choice to stop smoking, and if it’s hard to do, they can get all kinds of help. The fury and rage these idiots displayed at my simple, logical statement of fact was really frightening. “NO, no one can stop.”
I smoked an average of two packs a day for thirty years. I even watched them slowly kill my father but still didn’t quit. Switched to an e-cig two years ago after an expletive-laced tirade from my doctor, and so far, so good. But I told my wife that if it comes back to haunt me ten or fifteen years from now, all she’s to do is to run me through the undertaker’s oven and put me on the mantle in a walnut box. My choice, my consequences. My stupidity.
Coughing up dark brown phlegm for three decades wasn’t a clue.
First, the companies would be instantly replaced by violent criminal gangs with huge cash incomes.
Thus, a huge new expense for the justice system, plus, bodies in the street.
Second, state, local, and federal taxes collected on tobacco were about $31 billion in 2013.
That income would disappear like a...puff of smoke!
Finally, all the tort lawyers who participated in the 1998 “Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement” would lose their multi-million dollar annuities, a large part of which they kick back to the Democrat Party.
Bankrupt the tobacco companies?
I say:
“Go For It!”
The “damages” should have consisted of the widow and her lawyers being ordered to reimburse RJR for their expenses.
I begged him since I was a child to stop smoking, but he could not find the strength to kick the addiction. So he paid the price. And so did I, in losing him. I'll bet smokers don't consider the ones they leave behind as they puff their way to radiation therapy, chemotherapy, and seeing the stricken faces of loved ones around their bed. Or the lifelong asthma my smoking parents gifted me with.
Flame away, but I will bet a strong willed woman or a sissified man or 2 were on that jury.
Reynolds will have to recruit a lot of new smokers to pay off this judgment.
23B? I’m sure the check is in the mail.
Beverly Sills died of lung cancer. She never smoked.
My dad was a 2-pack-a-day, unfiltered Raleigh “plain” chimney since after his service in WWII. Had the smoker’s cough but no lung cancer.
I smoked for a few years back in the day. Put them down one day and never picked ‘em up again.
There is so much more to tobacco & lung cancer that has to do with an individuals “pre-disposition” than we are aware of.
The Lord will take you when He wants you. Ain’t nothing you can do about it. So everyday, tell those you love how you feel, just in case you are called.
I once was a chain smoker. I smoked 5 packs a day, 7 days a week, 12 months a year.
22 years ago I quit “cold turkey” because my breathing was so affected by it that I could hardly breathe and had to do something or else the future really, really looked bad. So I quit.
It took a long time, but after 22 years, my breathing has recovered NATURALLY by about 80% and I really feel fine. Better yet, the house and car don’t reek with the smell of smoke.
The point is: I knew of the risks from the start. As time went on those risks were promoted by all means and the warnings were clear. I clearly dismissed all warnings and kept on smoking.
Amazingly, I don’t have lung cancer but if I did, I sure as hell would not sue the makers of cigarettes. That’s kind of like filing a lawsuit on GOD because he caused someone to drive through a “low water crossing” and drowned.
Thanks to the “Legal Industry” personal responsibility equals someone else is responsible for your delima....not you. You are not held accountable for anything any longer...someone or something else caused it.
The one left cheering here is R.J. Reynolds, because the Supreme Court has previously ruled that an award of punitive damages more than 10x actual damages is unconstitutional.
As long as the government allows a product to be sold, while enforcing that company to put warning labels on said product, this ruling has no standing.
Look for it to be thrown out after a few more lawyers line their pockets.
HEY, I’m willing to start smoking to get my heirs onto this gravy train.
I’m 63 and have know about the dangers of smoking since at least the time I was in high school. Mr. Robinson was an adult who had free will and decided to smoke cigarettes. No one is responsible for the consequences except him, and now he’d dead.
I cannot image were the numbers of $7.3 million and $9.6 million in “actual” damages could have come from.
