Florida Supreme Court backs tobacco company in a fight over punitive damages

Share
Scales of Justice Law

The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a jury decision that would have required R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. to pay $16 million in punitive damages to the family of a woman who died at age 52 of lung cancer.

Justices, in a 5-1 ruling, said the punitive damages award to the estate of Lois Stucky was “excessive.”

The estate went to the Supreme Court in 2021 after the 5th District Court of Appeal overturned a decision by an Orange County jury to award the $16 million.

In part, the dispute focused on the discrepancy between the amounts of punitive and compensatory damages that were awarded.

The jury awarded $300,000 in compensatory damages to Stucky’s adult children, an amount that was reduced to $150,000 because of negligence attributed to Stucky.

Compensatory damages are generally related to compensating people for economic losses or injuries, while punitive damages are a form of punishment.

Thursday’s majority opinion, written by Justice Ricky Polston, said state law “requires a reasonable relationship between punitive damages and the amount of damages proved and the injury suffered.”

It also said that under the state’s wrongful-death law, a punitive damages award must be denied if it “does not bear a reasonable relation to the damages proved and the injury suffered by the statutory beneficiaries,” or Stucky’s children.

“In this case, because no reasonable trial court could have found that the $16 million punitive damages award bears a reasonable relation to the $150,000 net compensatory damages award and the injury suffered by Ms. Stucky’s survivors, the Fifth District correctly reversed the excessive punitive damages award and remanded (to the circuit court) for further proceedings,” Polston wrote in an opinion joined by Chief Justice Carlos Muniz and Justices Charles Canady, John Couriel and Jamie Grosshans.

Justice Jorge Labarga dissented, while Justice Renatha Francis did not take part in the case.

©2023 The News Service of Florida

You may also like

The Incarceration Nation

Alexandra Bailey calls in to the Forum to discuss efforts...

climate change storm rain
Hurricane Ian, one year later: A story of resiliency and hope

Hurricane Ian was the 3rd-costliest natural disaster to hit the...

lgbtq
Transgender and nonbinary people sue Florida over its “discriminatory” bathroom law

A federal lawsuit challenges a new Florida law requiring people...

The Scoop: Fri., September 29, 2023 Tampa Bay & Florida headlines by WMNF

Naples Capitol breacher caught A member of the ‘Proud Boys’...

Ways to listen

WMNF is listener-supported. That means we don't advertise like a commercial station, and we're not part of a university.

Ways to support

WMNF volunteers have fun providing a variety of needed services to keep your community radio station alive and kickin'.

Follow us on Instagram