Sheffield v. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.

Sheffield v. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.

Opinion

 [*115]  CANADY, C.J.

This case presents a question concerning the application of a statutory provision enacted to impose certain limitations on the award of punitive damages. ] In 1999, as part of a broader tort reform act, the Legislature amended section 768.73, Florida Statutes, to among other things presumptively preclude an award of punitive damages against a defendant in a civil action if "punitive damages have previously been awarded against that defendant in any state or federal court in any action alleging harm from the same act or single course of conduct for which the claimant seeks compensatory damages." Ch. 99-225, § 23, at 1417, Laws of Fla. The Legislature made the amendments applicable "to all causes of action arising after" October 1, 1999. Id. § 23, at 1418; see id. § 36, at 1428 (setting the effective date for the act). The certified conflict issue is whether the amendments apply to Engle progeny¹ wrongful death actions in which the smoking-injured decedent died after October 1, 1999. We have jurisdiction. See art. V, § 3(b)(4), Fla. Const.

Petitioner, Mary E. Sheffield—as personal representative of the estate of her deceased husband, Valton Sheffield, who died in 2007 as the result [**3]  of lung cancer diagnosed in 1994—seeks review of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. v. Sheffield, 266 So. 3d 1230 (Fla. 5th DCA 2019), in which the Fifth District Court of Appeal held that the 1999 amendments applied to her Engle progeny wrongful death action against Respondent, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company (Reynolds), on which "numerous prior punitive damages awards" had been imposed previously. Id. at 1232. The Fifth District generally reasoned that "arising" is synonymous with "accruing," that a wrongful death "cause of action" accrues upon death, and that because Mr. Sheffield died after October 1, 1999, the cause of action here necessarily accrued or arose after that date. Consequently, the Fifth District concluded that the 1999 amendments, by their plain terms, applied. Id. at 1233-34.

The Fifth District certified conflict with the First District Court of Appeal's decision in R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. v. Allen, 228 So. 3d 684 (Fla. 1st DCA 2017), the Second District Court of Appeal's decision in R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. v. Evers, 232 So. 3d 457 (Fla. 2d DCA 2017), and the Fourth District Court of Appeal's decision in R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. v. Konzelman, 248 So. 3d 134 (Fla. 4th DCA 2018), each of which applied the pre-amended version of the statute in similar wrongful death actions. Allen, Evers, and Konzelman all effectively held that Engle progeny cases are "different" and that the wrongful death actions related back to the Engle class action, which began in 1994.

Full case includes Shepard's, Headnotes, Legal Analytics from Lex Machina, and more.