St. Thomas juries award $113 million in smoking lawsuits

ST. THOMAS — A first-of-its-kind consolidated trial in a lawsuit over the deaths of two territorial residents from cigarette smoke awarded $113 million in damages, lawyers in the case say.

The civil trial involved two separate six-person juries hearing arguments in the case, said Gordon Rhea, who tried the case along with Michael Weisman and Russel Pate before St. Thomas Superior Court Judge Michael Dunston.

Jevon Gerald, the son of Lucien Evans England Sr., and Christian Brown, the son of Patrice Hale Brown, sued U.S. tobacco manufacturer R.J. Reynolds over their parents’ deaths from smoking-related illnesses in 2010.

Dunston ordered both cases combined for what eventually became a five-week trial, Rhea said.

“In cases where there are two different families involved, there’s always a chance that there will be spillover prejudice,” he said.

That means that the result of one of the trials could impact the other.

So Dunston ordered one jury empaneled for Gerald v. R.J. Reynolds, and a second jury empaneled for Brown v. R.J. Reynolds. Where the cases overlapped, attorneys for plaintiffs and the defendants made their case to both juries. Where testimony focused on one of the cases, jurors for the other case would retreat to the jury deliberation chambers. Attorneys also tried to cluster case-specific testimony on single days, so jurors for one case could take the day off.

In the Brown case, jurors awarded $70 million in compensatory damages — damages related to the loss of a loved one — and $12.3 million in punitive damages — damages designed to punish Reynolds for the actions of Lorillard, the original manufacturer of Newport cigarettes.

In the England case, Gerald v. R.J. Reynolds, jurors awarded $1 million in compensatory damages and $30 million in punitive damages.

England became addicted in his youth, when he discovered sample bags of Newport cigarettes hanging unattended from doorknobs in a New York apartment building where he was visiting. Patrice Hale Brown, a hotel owner, became addicted on a visit to Florida in her teens, according to Rhea. Both England and Patrice Hale Brown returned to the Virgin Islands after becoming addicted, and died in the territory.

England died of bladder cancer and cancer of the larynx. Brown died of lung cancer, according to attorneys in the case.

Appeals are general practice in large-verdict cigarette cases, which often see large totals reduced. A full appeal on the case before the V.I. Supreme Court could take a year, Rhea said.

Weisman is an attorney for the Boston-based nonprofit Public Health Advocacy Institute, whose president Richard Daynard issued a statement praising jurors following the verdict’s announcement on Friday.

“The juries saw through the defendant’s con game: they addicted these two smokers through deceptive advertising and free samples, made thousands of dollars of profits from their subsequent purchase of Newports, and then tried to blame them for their ‘irresponsible’ decision to keep using these products,” Daynard’s statement reads.

 

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