Future of tobacco verdict is uncertain after Florida appeals court ruling.The odd timing of an appeals court decision in a Florida tobacco case has left both the plaintiffs and defendant wondering whether Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp. will still be required to pay the compensatory and punitive damages Monetary compensation awarded to an injured party that goes beyond that which is necessary to compensate the individual for losses and that is intended to punish the wrongdoer. a jury awarded in June to the family of a deceased smoker smoker A person who smokes tobacco, almost always understood to be cigarettes Ratio of ♂:♀ smokers Philippines64/19, China61/7, Saudi Arabia53/2, Russia50/12 . The Tallahassee appeals court, apparently unaware that the case had already been tried, granted the tobacco company's pre-trial motion to have the trial moved from Jacksonville, in Duval County Duval County may mean:
"[W]e find that... the trial court abused its discretion" in denying Brown & Williamson's request for a change of venue A change of venue is the legal term for moving a trial to a new location. In high-profile matters, a change of venue may occur to move a jury trial away from a location where a fair and impartial jury may not be possible due to widespread publicity about a crime and/or defendant(s) , the three-judge panel said. (Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp. v. Widdick, No. 98-894, 1998 WL 476268 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. Aug. 13, 1998).) The court said Duval County's only connections with the case were that the plaintiff's lawyer, Norwood "Woody" Wilner, has offices in Jacksonville and that a defendant cigarette retailer is headquarted there. The retailer, Winn-Dixie Stores, Inc., was dismissed from the suit before trial. Before the ruling, Brown & Williamson (B&W) had already asked the trial judge to overturn the jury's verdict, which was the first to award punitive damages to a plaintiff in a tobacco case. (Tobacco plaintiffs win one, lose one in Florida, TRIAL, Aug. 1998, at 18.) In a statement, B&W President Tom Bezanson said the appeals court ruling, coupled with the reversal in June of another verdict against the company in a separate case, "clearly entitles B&W to a new trial in Palm Beach County." Lawyers for the family of the dead smoker, Roland Maddox, disagreed, saying the location of the trial did not unfairly affect the outcome. Wilner has asked the court to vacate To annul, set aside, or render void; to surrender possession or occupancy. The term vacate has two common usages in the law. With respect to real property, to vacate the premises means to give up possession of the property and leave the area totally devoid of contents. the ruling on venue as moot An issue presenting no real controversy. Moot refers to a subject for academic argument. It is an abstract question that does not arise from existing facts or rights. because the trial is over and a verdict has been rendered. Stephanie Hartley, an attorney in Wilner's office who is working with him on the case, said it is highly unusual for an appellate Relating to appeals; reviews by superior courts of decisions of inferior courts or administrative agencies and other proceedings. ruling on a pre-trial motion to come after the trial is held. "There's no case like it," she said. Chief Judge Edward Barfield, who wrote the appeals court opinion, declined to comment on what might happen to a verdict in a sitution like this. "I wouldn't touch that question with a 10-foot pole," the judge told the Associated Press Associated Press: see news agency. Associated Press (AP) Cooperative news agency, the oldest and largest in the U.S. and long the largest in the world. . "That's a whole different can of worms." |
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