A jury awarded $7.5 million to the estate of a cigarette smoker who died of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
The estate’s counsel, who dismissed all the other defendants before trial, alleged that negligence by R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. caused Beverly Schlenther’s death at 67 from more than 40 years of being addicted to nicotine. They blamed RJR cigarettes for Schlenther’s COPD, which caused her death. They claimed Schlenther began smoking before package warnings about the health hazards and addictive nature of cigarettes were required.
