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Editor's note: This article is updated to reflect the verdict in the case.
Springfield, MA— Jurors Friday awarded more than $10 million for the lung cancer death of a Massachusetts woman after finding R.J. Reynolds, maker of the cigarettes she smoked for decades, responsible for the disease.
The Massachusetts state court jury reached its verdict after deliberating across four days at trial over the 2018 death of Jacqueline Penza, who smoked Reynolds’ Winston-brand cigarettes for much of her life. The award includes $2.5 million in punitive damages and a finding that Reynolds’ participation in a tobacco industry conspiracy to mislead the public on the dangers of smoking caused Penza’s lung cancer.
Jurors cleared Reynolds on a range of other claims, including fraud and breach of warranty.
Penza, born in 1959, was a daily smoker by the time she was 15. She was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2016 and ultimately died two years later. Her family claims the tobacco company is responsible for making and marketing cigarettes it knew were dangerous while working to conceal those dangers from consumers, which they contend caused her fatal lung cancer.
Friday's verdict wraps a month-long trial over what led to Penza's smoking decisions. Last Monday, both sides’ closing arguments focused in large part on the choices made by Penza compared to those made by Reynolds across the decades.
During his closing on Monday, Jones Day’s Jason Keehfus, representing Reynolds, highlighted evidence he said showed Penza was well aware of the risks of smoking, by receiving warnings from family members; health professionals; public information; and in recent decades, from Reynolds itself. But Keehfus said Penza chose to continue smoking without doing enough to quit in time to avoid her cancer.
“She was literally surrounded by direct warnings of the dangers of smoking throughout her life,” Keehfus said. “She wasn’t listening to anyone when it came to her smoking decisions.”
However, Gordon & Partners’ Gary Paige, representing Penza’s family, reviewed evidence that he said showed Reynolds intentionally marketed to teens like Penza all while working with other tobacco companies to undermine public health information concerning the addictive nature and risks of cigarettes for much of the latter half of the 20th century.
“Reynolds faced choices over and over again, for decades, that could have saved lives,” Paige said. “For every choice that they were faced (with), they constantly, constantly, over and over again, made the wrong choice.”
Email Arlin Crisco at acrisco@cvn.com.
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