{"id":2286,"date":"2014-06-10T21:40:20","date_gmt":"2014-06-10T21:40:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=2286"},"modified":"2014-06-10T21:40:20","modified_gmt":"2014-06-10T21:40:20","slug":"u-s-supreme-court-leaves-florida-jury-awards-intact-in-engle-cases-this-is-a-big-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=2286","title":{"rendered":"U.S. Supreme Court leaves Florida jury awards intact in Engle cases — this is a big deal"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Howard_Engle\"<\/a>
Howard Engle<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This is a continuation of the long-running Engle case in Florida.<\/p>\n

Many years ago, a jury issued a $145 billion class action judgement against Big Tobacco for knowingly selling a toxic, addictive product to people, and then lying about it. This came to be known as the Engle case ($110 million settlement reached by\u00a0Liggett Group in Engle cas<\/a>e)\u00a0, named after Howard Engle, one of the main plaintiffs. The Florida Supreme Court \u00a0overturned that ruling several years ago, but made a subtle and very important ruling in favour of the plaintiffs that while they could not sue for class action damages, they could individually sue Big Tobacco for the effects of its lies and cover ups on them on their families.<\/p>\n

Since then, there’s been literally hundreds of lawsuits filed against Philip Morris, RJ Reynolds and Lorillard and many judgements have been handed out in the millions of dolalrs.<\/p>\n

R.J. Reynolds appealed a number of these judgements (RJR has always been the most aggressive company in fighting anti-tobacco court cases and laws), to the U.S. Supreme Court. The total amount of the judgements is about $70 million (the largest single judgement is $25 million). The U.S. Supreme Court categorically refused <\/a>to hear their appeal, in effect letting the judgements stand.<\/p>\n

So, another loss in the courts for Big Tobacco; this is not the area in which they’re going to win much anymore. There is simply too much documentation, much of it coming out through the discovery process in countless lawsuits over the years against Big Tobacco, of the industry’s lies, subterfuge and cover-ups. They were selling a poisonous product and were killing people and they knew it. The evidence is all there.<\/p>\n

There are thousands of these cases that will be tied up in the courts in Florida for the next 10 to 20 years. Keep forcing those tobacco company to pay and keep forcing them to pour millions into their legal fees. (Passing on their costs to the consumers and encouraging more people to save money by quitting — seriously, one of the reasons cigarettes are so expensive today compared to 20 years ago is because of all the legal expenses and the $280 billion Master Settlement Agreement reached by Big Tobacco.).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is a continuation of the long-running Engle case in Florida. Many years ago, a jury issued a $145 billion class action judgement against Big Tobacco for knowingly selling a toxic, addictive product to people, and then lying about it. This came to be known as the Engle case ($110 million settlement reached by\u00a0Liggett Group … Continue reading U.S. Supreme Court leaves Florida jury awards intact in Engle cases — this is a big deal<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2287,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[24,311],"tags":[594,666,611],"class_list":["post-2286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-engle-case","category-florida","tag-engle-case","tag-florida","tag-rj-reynolds"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/Howard_Engle.jpg?fit=600%2C369&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4hpEa-AS","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2365,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=2365","url_meta":{"origin":2286,"position":0},"title":"RJ Reynolds loses $23.6 billion jury judgement","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"July 20, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Wow, this is a big \"wow.\" A big wow that will likely get reduced upon appeal. In one of the thousands of Engle liability cases in Florida, a jury awarded a settlement of $23.6 billion (yeah, billion) in favor of one of the 8,000 Engle plaintiffs. (The Engle decision was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Engle case"","block_context":{"text":"Engle case","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=24"},"img":{"alt_text":"Cigarettes-burning-via-AFP-615x345","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Cigarettes-burning-via-AFP-615x345-300x168.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2967,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=2967","url_meta":{"origin":2286,"position":1},"title":"Breaking: Big Tobacco companies agree to $100 million settlement of Engle cases","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"February 25, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 Breaking news! RJ Reynolds, Lorillard and Philip Morris have reached a $100 million settlement of 400 \u00a0Engle cases in Florida. I thought they might do this. I've been writing for months that, every way I cut it, it was in their interest to do this. The Engle (named after\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Engle case"","block_context":{"text":"Engle case","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=24"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Howard-Engle.jpg?fit=600%2C369&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Howard-Engle.jpg?fit=600%2C369&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Howard-Engle.jpg?fit=600%2C369&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2542,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=2542","url_meta":{"origin":2286,"position":2},"title":"Philip Morris, R.J. Reynolds lose another $41 million settlement, this one for giving a person COPD","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"October 24, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Tobacco giants Philip Morris and R.J. Reynolds lost another major settlement this week\u00a0in Florida. This case is one of the thousands of Engle cases winding their way through the Florida courts. R.J. Reynolds will appeal this verdict (oh, yes they will) but several of these verdicts have been upheld by\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "COPD"","block_context":{"text":"COPD","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=19"},"img":{"alt_text":"camel","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/camel.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2878,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=2878","url_meta":{"origin":2286,"position":3},"title":"Another Engle Case judgement — $17.3 million against Philip Morris","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"January 25, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"This is yet another in a long line (literally thousands) of Engle Case lawsuits in Florida. The Engle case was a Supreme Court decision that overturned a $145 billion class-action judgement against Big Tobacco, while at the same time allowing individual lawsuits against various tobacco companies to be filed. This\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Engle case"","block_context":{"text":"Engle case","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=24"},"img":{"alt_text":"0.8A!OpenElement&FieldElemFormat=gif","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/0.8AOpenElementFieldElemFormatgif.gif?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1157,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=1157","url_meta":{"origin":2286,"position":4},"title":"R.J. Reynolds quietly loses $37.5 million judgement","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"August 4, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"This story didn't get as much attention as I would've have expected, I think because it's actually becoming routine. A jury last week awarded a family who lost their wife and mother to lung cancer in 1995 after years of smoking a $37.5 award from R.J. Reynolds. This judgement is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Engle case"","block_context":{"text":"Engle case","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=24"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/r-GROSSMAN-large570.jpg?fit=570%2C238&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/r-GROSSMAN-large570.jpg?fit=570%2C238&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/r-GROSSMAN-large570.jpg?fit=570%2C238&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2883,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=2883","url_meta":{"origin":2286,"position":5},"title":"RJ Reynolds punitive damages reduced from $23 billion to $16.9 million","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"February 1, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"This was entirely predictable. A Florida jury, in one of the thousands of Engle progeny cases, recently awarded a punitive judgement against RJ Reynolds for $23 billion because a widow's husband died from smoking cigarettes. I hate RJ Reynolds as much as the next guy, but I knew that no\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Engle case"","block_context":{"text":"Engle case","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=24"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/rj_reynolds.jpg?fit=520%2C395&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2286"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2286\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2288,"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2286\/revisions\/2288"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}