R.J. Reynolds Forced to Pay Damages to Fla. Smoker

R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Holdings Inc. sent a $195,602.87 check to a retired Florida schoolteacher, marking only the second time a tobacco company has paid a jury award to a sick smoker.

A Florida appeals court refused to throw out the judgment, forcing the company to make the payment to lung cancer victim Floyd Kenyon, who was awarded damages in December 2001 that have since grown with interest.

R.J. Reynolds, the No. 2 U.S. cigarette maker, can still appeal to the state’s highest court or to the U.S. Supreme Court, said Kenyon’s attorney, Howard Acosta.

“They were required to make the payment to us or suffer the sheriff coming down and taking away their Winstons,” Acosta said. “The Kenyons are happy.... Reynolds is unhappy.”

Winston-Salem, N.C.-based R.J. Reynolds is reviewing its legal options, spokeswoman Ellen Matthews said.

Tobacco companies agreed in 1998 to pay settlements totaling $246 billion to resolve lawsuits filed by the states. Since then, they have suffered a number of courtroom defeats at the hands of individual smokers, including four multimillion-dollar losses in California and four others in Oregon, Kansas and Arkansas. Industry leader Philip Morris USA also has been ordered to pay $10.1 billion in an Illinois class-action case for deceiving smokers about the risks of “light” cigarettes.

But these cases are in various stages of drawn-out appeals. Before now, the only payment of a damage award was by Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp., which paid about $1.1 million to ex-smoker Grady Carter in 2001 after exhausting its appeals.

A Tampa jury had ordered R.J. Reynolds to pay compensatory damages for Kenyon’s lung cancer and other ailments but rejected a claim for punitive damages.

Shares of R.J. Reynolds fell 10 cents to $32.98 on the New York Stock Exchange.