Lawyers Ask $154 Billion for Fla. Smokers

July 10 -- Tobacco companies that caused health problems for more than 300,000 Florida smokers should pay damages of $154 billion, the largest punitive damage request ever in a product liability case, a plaintiffs’ attorney told jurors during closing arguments today.

“The day of reckoning has arrived,” smokers’ lawyer Stanley Rosenblatt told jurors today. He said cigarette makers are responsible for millions of deaths, leaving a “half century trail of deceit.”

Rosenblatt presented a range of possible judgments between $123 billion and $196 billion to six Miami jurors and said, “An appropriate, just number would be $154 billion.”

The case, known as the Engle trial, is the only class-action lawsuit by smokers against the tobacco industry to ever go to trial. Industry analysts and tobacco companies have maintained all along that the case will very likely be overturned on appeal simply because they think the case should have never been certified as a class action.

Last year, the jury decided the tobacco companies make a deadly, defective product and should be held liable for damages. This portion of the trial is strictly to determine how much should be paid by Philip Morris Co. Inc., R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., the Liggett Group Inc., Lorillard Tobacco Co. and Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp.

Deliberations Next WeekJury deliberations are not expected to begin until next week, but a short deliberation process is expected. Until today, it was unknown how much plaintiffs would seek in damages, but amounts as high as $300 billion were discussed.

The verdict could easily set a new U.S. record for punitive damages in a product liability case, surpassing the $4.8 billion judgment against General Motors a year ago in a California car fire. A judge slashed that award to $1.09 billion.

“Given the types of numbers mentioned by both sides, our hunch is that the jury may award far less than the gigadigit expectations of the media,” Martin Feldman, the tobacco analyst at Solomon Smith Barney, told investors in a note last week. “Perhaps an award in the high single digit — or low double digit — billion dollar range is most likely.”