Jury Awards Family $152 Million in Damages Over Smoking Wrongful Death

A court in Massachusetts, added $ 81 million in punitive damages Thursday to $ 71 million in compensatory damages had already been granted to the family of a woman who died of lung cancer.

Suffolk Superior Court ruled this week that black Lorillard Tobacco Company in children attracted by offering smokers free cigarettes.

The plaintiff, Willie Evans, said the company distributed Newport cigarettes to children and their mother, Marie Evans, during the 1950’s and early 1960 at the Orchard Park area of Boston.

“It’s certainly bittersweet,” said Evans. “If I had to choose, I would have preferred the company of snuff have not given my mother’s cigarettes as a child of 9 years old.”

Marie Evans died at age 54 after suffering from lung cancer small cell, according to the criminal complaint.

His family said that Lorillard “developed techniques to manipulate and control the nicotine delivery of cigarettes to create and sustain addiction in smokers, including Marie Evans.” According to the complaint.

Lorillard said that these allegations are unfounded.

The company is the third largest manufacturer of cigarettes in the United States, according to a company statement.

The company said it plans to appeal.

“Lorillard respectfully disagree with the jury’s verdict and denied the applicant’s argument that the company in the sample to children or adults in Orchard Park, in the 1960’s,” spokesman Greg Perry.

Jurors heard a statement video of Evans recorded three weeks before his death in 2002, which described receiving Lorillard cigarettes as a child.

“We hope this allows other people to present, and gives them confidence to move their cases forward,” Evans said in tears after embracing his lawyer when the verdict was read.

But Lorillard Evans argues that “the memories of 50 years of age, persuasively contradicted by the testimony of several witnesses,” said Perry.

The jury deliberated for about two hours Thursday, after listening to financial experts and forensic testimony.