JACKSONVILLE, FLA. — An ex-smoker who lost a lung to cancer became the first person to collect money for beating the tobacco industry in court over a smoking-related illness.
Lawyers for Grady Carter received $1,087,191 from Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp. on Thursday as full payment plus interest on a 1995 jury award of $750,000. Carter's lung cancer is in remission.
"Brown & Williamson paid $750,000, but I paid with a lung," the 70-year-old Carter of suburban Jacksonville said at a news conference.
The Florida Supreme Court upheld the jury's decision in November, and on Wednesday it refused to allow the company to avoid paying Carter while the company pursues a new appeal.
Brown & Williamson spokesman Mark Smith said the company plans to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The 1995 judgment was the second time in 40 years of litigation that a cigarette maker was ordered to pay damages to a smoker. Until Thursday, the industry had never actually paid any money on a jury verdict.
In 1988, the family of Rose Cipollone of New Jersey was awarded $400,000 at trial, but the judgment was overturned on appeal. Other awards since 1995 are under appeal.
Carter blamed Brown & Williamson for the cancer he developed after smoking for 44 years. A jury ruled the cigarettes were defective and their makers were negligent for not warning people of the danger.
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