The court, in a one-page order, turned aside the company’s bid for an appeal of the 2009 verdict in favour of Mathilde Martin, who claimed her husband, Benny Ray Martin, died from a smoking-related disease. The tobacco company, a unit of Reynolds American, argued the award was excessive.
The decision hich could affect thousands of pending case leaves in place a lower state appeals court ruling that affirmed the verdict.
David Howard, a spokesman for R.J. Reynolds, said the company is disappointed the Florida Supreme Court won’t review the lower court’s decision, which he said deprived the company of its constitutional right to a fair trial. Reynolds will try to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, Howard said.
In 2009, a state court jury in Pensacola, Florida, ordered Reynolds to pay more than USD 3.3 million in compensatory damages and USD 25 million in punitive damages to Mathilde Martin. Her husband, Benny Martin, died in 1995 of lung cancer that she blamed on his long-time smoking of Reynolds' "Lucky Strike" cigarettes.
The jury said Reynolds was 66 per cent responsible for Benny Martin's death and that Martin, who started smoking in the 1940s before health warnings were added to cigarette packages, was 34 per cent responsible. (pi)