BOSTON -- (Mealey's) A Massachusetts jury awarded $71 million in compensatory damages on Dec. 14 to the estate and only son of a woman who said she began smoking free Newport cigarettes handed out in her neighborhood by Lorillard Tobacco Co., according... Read More

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - A Florida jury awarded $4.5 million to the 87-year-old widow of a longtime smoker April 13, but tempered her eventual compensation by assigning nearly half of the responsibility to the decedent ( Mary Tullo v. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco... Read More

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. - (Mealey's) A New Jersey state court jury on April 8 awarded a plaintiff $2.1 million after finding that Hoffman-La Roche Inc.'s acne drug Accutane was a substantial factor in causing her inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and... Read More

ANNAPOLIS, Md. - (Mealey's) The Maryland Court of Special Appeals on Feb. 9 vacated much of a $147 million jury award to homeowners whose groundwater was contaminated with benzene and methyl tertiary-butyl ether (MTBE) by a 26,000-gallon gasoline... Read More

By William A. Ruskin On March 27, 2013, a jury in federal district court in Bridgeport, Connecticut awarded Cara Munn, a 20-year-old woman who formerly attended the Hotchkiss School in Lakeville, Connecticut, $41,750,000 in a case styled Orson D. Munn... Read More

CHICAGO - (Mealey's) In what plaintiff attorneys say is the first such case to go to trial, an Illinois state court jury on June 9 awarded $625,000 to the estate of a man who died after allegedly receiving three doses of contaminated heparin ( Estate... Read More

ST. PAUL, Minn. - (Mealey's) Determining that a jury award of $222,000 from almost five years ago was constitutional, an Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Sept. 11 reinstated the award in favor of a group of six plaintiff record labels... Read More

On May 29, 2012, Rolando Cumpian was working for Leal Welding & Erection, Inc. in San Antonio, TX. At that time, Leal was operating as the subcontractor for Joeris General Contractors, Ltd., which was acting as the general contractor for a construction... Read More

DELAND, Fla. - (Mealey's) A Florida circuit court jury awarded $1 million to a 77-year-old Daytona Beach, Fla., woman on April 7 but also found her 70 percent responsible for her lung cancer ( Stella Koballa, et al. v. Philip Morris USA, Inc., et... Read More

LAS VEGAS - (Mealey's) A Nevada state court jury on Oct. 6 ordered three drug defendants to pay three plaintiffs $20.1 million in compensatory damages for selling so-called "jumbo" vials of the anesthetic propofol, resulting in the vials... Read More

WASHINGTON, D.C. - (Mealey's) The U.S. Supreme Court announced May 16 that it denied a petition for a writ of certiorari for a welder who sought review of an appellate court opinion overturning a $20 million jury award for failing to warn of the risks... Read More

On July 19, 2012, Brandon Hall, an employee of Best Buy Co., Inc., and a member of the "Geek Squad," went to the home of Hugh Saddler, an African-American male, to repair a television. Plaintiff Sunshine Guerrero, Saddler's wife, a Hispanic... Read More

Sources say it's the largest single-plaintiff asbestos award in U.S. history RALEIGH, Miss. - (Mealey's) A Mississippi jury on May 4 awarded $322 million - including $300 million in punitive damages - to a man suffering from asbestosis caused... Read More

PHILADELPHIA - (Mealey's) A Pennsylvania state court jury on Dec. 6 awarded $72.6 million to three women who say they developed breast cancer after taking hormone replacement therapy (HRT) drugs made by subsidiaries of Pfizer Inc. ( Susan Elfont,... Read More

BROCKTON, Mass. - (Mealey's) A Massachusetts state court jury on Feb. 13 awarded $63 million to a family whose young daughter was severely injured by a reaction to Children's Motrin ( Lisa Reckis, et al. v. Johnson & Johnson, et al. , No.... Read More