A jury awarded $7.5 million, including $2.5 million in punitive damages, to a woman who claimed she developed chronic obstructive pulmonary respiratory disease from smoking cigarettes.
Pauline Burkhart began smoking cigarettes at 18 and was diagnosed with COPD 34 years later. She claimed she was addicted to nicotine in R.J. Reynolds, Philip Morris and Lorillard cigarettes, and nicotine caused her lung disease. Burkhart also claimed the defendants concealed the health effects of cigarettes and their addictive nature.
