An Alachua County jury awarded USD 3.36 million (EUR 2.4 million) against RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company and Philip Morris USA for the wrongful death of John Huish, who died of lung cancer after 46 years of smoking.

John's widow Anna Louise Huish was on Thursday awarded USD 1.5 million against RJ Reynolds Tobacco and another USD 1.5 million against Philip Morris, said attorney Tom Gustafson of the law firm Searcy, Denney, Scarola, Barnhart & Shipley. The same jury on Tuesday night awarded the family of John Huish USD 750,000 in compensatory damages.
According to a press release by the law firm Searcy, Denney, Scarola, Barnhart & Shipley, the plaintiff's lawyers showed that Huish started smoking as a teen in rural Arizona, 20 years before the first warning labels ever appeared on cigarette packs. Under the standard required by the Florida Supreme Court's "Engle" decision, the plaintiff needed to show that Huish was addicted to nicotine and nicotine addiction caused his death. (pi)