What kind of foolishness is this? A jury has ruled that the Lorillard Tobacco Co. historically tried to entice black children to become smokers by handing out free cigarettes. The jury has awarded $71 million in compensatory damages to the estate of the son of a woman who died of lung cancer.
The Suffolk Superior Court jury announced its verdict Tuesday after hearing weeks of testimony.
Willie Evans claimed that Lorillard introduced his mother, Marie Evans, to smoking as a child in the late 1950s by giving her free Newport cigarettes at the Orchard Park housing project in Boston, where she lived. He said his mother smoked for more than 40 years before dying of lung cancer at age 54.
The jury awarded Marie Evans’ estate $50 million in compensatory damages and gave her son $21 million. A hearing on possible punitive damages is set for Thursday.
During the trial, a lawyer for Lorillard, which is based in Greensboro, N.C., (and also makes Kent, True, Old Gold, Maverick and Max cigarettes), said that like many other cigarette companies it gave away free samples decades ago to adults in an attempt to get them to switch brands. But the company insisted it did not give cigarettes to children and called the allegation that it intentionally gave samples to black children ‘disturbing.’
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Marie Evans’ lawyers said she received her first free cigarette at about age nine and initially gave them to her older sisters or traded them for candy. They said she began smoking at age 13.
Jurors also heard from Evans herself through a videotaped deposition, which she gave to her lawyers in 2002, three weeks before she died. On the tape, Evans said the cigarette giveaways had a ‘large impact’ on her.
‘Because they were available … I didn’t worry about finding money to buy them,’ she said. ‘They seemed to be always available.’
Evans said that over the years she made about 50 attempts to quit smoking but couldn’t.
‘I was addicted,’ she said. ‘I just couldn’t stop.’
