Georgia Supreme Court Bars Punitive Damages From Individual Smoking and Health Lawsuits
March 14 2006 - 3:36PM
PR Newswire (US)
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C., March 14 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- R.J.
Reynolds Tobacco Company is pleased with yesterday's ruling by the
Georgia State Supreme Court that the Master Settlement Agreement
(MSA) bars punitive damages in individual smoking and health
lawsuits in Georgia. "The Court determined that, under Georgia law,
punitive damages are a matter of public interest and when a state
dismisses its claim for those damages in a consent decree,
individuals are bound and may not recover them on their own," said
Martin L. Holton III, senior vice president and deputy general
counsel - litigation for R.J. Reynolds. "We obviously are pleased
with the decision." In the Gault case, the family of Clara Gault
Freeman, who died of lung cancer in 2001, has brought a product
liability action against the former Brown & Williamson Tobacco
Corporation (B&W's domestic tobacco business merged with R.J.
Reynolds Tobacco Company on July 31, 2004) seeking compensatory and
punitive damages. The case will now return to a federal district
court for further handling. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, an
indirect subsidiary of Reynolds American Inc. (NYSE:RAI), is the
second-largest tobacco company in the United States, manufacturing
about one of every three cigarettes sold in the country. The
company's brands include five of the 10 best-selling U.S. cigarette
brands: Camel, Kool, Winston, Salem and Doral. For more
information, visit http://www.rjrt.com/. DATASOURCE: R.J. Reynolds
Tobacco Company CONTACT: David Howard of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco
Company, +1-336-741-3489 Web site: http://www.rjrt.com/
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