$200 Million Verdict Against R.J. Reynolds for Boston Woman's Lung Cancer Death
Won by Bernheim Kelley, LLC.
A Suffolk County jury awarded $200 million in October 2023, the largest wrongful death award in Boston history, against R.J. Reynolds for the lung cancer death of Rita Jones, who first received free Newport cigarettes as a teenager in 1964.
What happened
Rita Jones was sixteen years old in 1964 when tobacco company Lorillard handed out free Newport cigarette samples on the streets of Roxbury, a predominantly Black neighborhood in Boston. She was not a smoker before that day. She became one shortly after, and over the next fifty-one years she smoked roughly two packs a day. She died of lung cancer in 2018 at age seventy.
Her family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, which acquired Lorillard and its Newport brand in 2015 and assumed liability for Lorillard's prior conduct. The case went to trial in September 2023 before Judge Anthony Campo in Suffolk County Superior Court. Walter Kelley of Bernheim Kelley Battista served as trial co-counsel alongside Randy Rosenblum of Dolan Dobrinsky Rosenblum Bluestein, with Hausfeld also participating in the litigation.
At trial, the plaintiff's team presented three theories: that Newport cigarettes contained a defective design, that Lorillard distributed them negligently to minors, and that Reynolds and Lorillard conspired for decades to hide the cancer risks of their products and deny nicotine's addictive properties. The defense, handled by Emily Baker of Jones Day, disputed the cause and scope of the company's responsibility.
The jury deliberated over three days and returned a verdict on October 3, 2023. It assigned 97 percent of fault to Lorillard and Reynolds, with 3 percent attributed to Rita Jones, but because the jury found for the plaintiff on a design defect claim, the comparative fault offset did not apply to reduce the award. The jury allocated $50 million in compensatory damages, broken into medical costs, pain and suffering, and loss of consortium for each of Rita's five children, and added $150 million in punitive damages to punish the company for willful conduct spanning decades.
The total award of $200 million was described by CVN reporter Arlin Crisco as the largest wrongful death award in Boston history. As of the available public record, no appellate reduction has been reported.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
- 1.CVN (Arlin Crisco, Oct. 6, 2023): $200M Verdict Hits RJR for Massachusetts Woman's Lung Cancer Death·Archived copy
- 2.CVN case record: Jones v. R.J. Reynolds et al., Trial Sept. 13 - Oct. 3, 2023, Suffolk County Superior Court·Archived copy
- 3.Hausfeld firm news release naming Walter Kelley / Bernheim Kelley Battista as trial co-counsel·Archived copy
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