A Hawaii state court jury awarded R.J. Reynolds $91 million earlier this month after determining that the tobacco company was responsible for a long-term smoker’s throat cancer. Manious v. R.J. Reynolds, 3CCV 22-72.
Jurors found Reynolds liable on design defect, fraud, and conspiracy claims for Marvin Manious’ laryngeal cancer, which developed in 2020 after decades of smoking the company’s Kool cigarettes. The verdict totals $6 million in compensatory damages and $85 million in punitive damages.
The trial, which lasted more than a month, focused on what motivated Manious to smoke for the majority of his life. Reynolds claims that Manious chose to smoke despite knowing the risks and did not do enough to quit smoking in time to avoid developing cancer.
During his closing argument, Randy Bassett of King & Spalding told jurors that Manious had been warned about the dangers of smoking from a variety of sources, including cigarette packs, family members, and health professionals.
“He had a flood of information warning him about the dangers of smoking,” Bassett said, adding that no one saw Manious attempt to quit smoking until he did so successfully in 2014.
However, in his closing statement, Manious’ attorney, Nick Reyes of The Alvarez Law Firm, walked jurors through evidence that he claimed showed Reynolds was involved in a tobacco industry conspiracy that aimed to undermine health information on the dangers of smoking for much of the latter half of the twentieth century.
He also stated that Reynolds targeted young people like Manious, who became a regular smoker at the age of 15, in order to hook them up with cigarettes that the company knew were dangerous.
“They got him when he was a kid, which is how they get most of their customers,” Reyes told me. “So, when it comes to determining blame, it isn’t Marvin as an adult. It is Marvin as a 15-year-old child.”
