Brannock Humphries & Berman Helps 97-Year-Old Plaintiff Obtain Verdict Against Cigarette Company

After a three-week trial, a Miami jury awarded damages to the wife of a World War II fighter pilot who died in 1993 from a lifetime of smoking Pall Mall cigarettes.

This was the second trial for the plaintiff, after a mistrial was declared just before the COVID-19 pandemic.  With social distancing and other health measures in place, the parties returned to the Miami-Dade courthouse a year and a half later for a retrial.  The jury entered a verdict of $5.7 million, placing 46.9% of the fault for the smoker’s death on defendant R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company.  However, the jury declined to award punitive damages.

Brannock Humphries & Berman provided support at trial to the excellent team of Adam Trop, Gary Paige, Rod Smith, and Dawn Vallejos-Nichols.