Smoker Awarded Additional $4M Punitive Damages in Tobacco Lawsuit

A Connecticut woman has been awarded about $12 million in damages through a tobacco lawsuit filed against R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., including nearly $4 million in punitive damages that were awarded last week.  

The product liability lawsuit was filed by 49 year-old Barbara Izzarelli, who alleged that she developed larynx cancer after smoking for more than 25 years. Her larynx was removed 13 years ago due to the cancer.

In May, a jury awarded $13.9 million in compensatory damages, after determining that R.J. Reynolds created a defective and unreasonably dangerous product that was marketed with reckless disregard for public safety. However, that amount was reduced to about $8 million after the jury also determined that Izzarelli was 42 percent responsible for her own injuries.

The decision about additional punitive damages, designed to punish the tobacco company, was left to Judge Stefan Underhill, who awarded an additional $3.97 million to the plaintiff last Thursday. According to a report by the Associated Press, if interest is added to compensate for a decade of alleged stall tactics by R.J. Reynolds, another $15.8 million may be awarded under state law.

Izzarelli’s lawsuit was the first jury verdict victory for a plaintiff against a tobacco company in New England. The lawsuit claimed that the marketing for Salem cigarettes, which Izzarelli smoked, targeted youths in the 1970s.