Edward Schwartz

A Miami jury awarded $37.5 million in gross compensatory damages to John Lukacs, a 76-year-old attorney who developed bladder and oral cancer after three decades of heavy smoking. The trial court later entered a reduced judgment of about $24.8 million, which the Third District Court of Appeal affirmed.

A Miami-Dade jury awarded $5 million in January 2023 to the family of Robert Hoffman, who died of lung cancer at 46 after smoking Marlboro cigarettes as a teenager and quitting before age 30, with Philip Morris held 60 percent at fault.

A Lee County jury awarded $2,180,044 to John Kenneth Anderson after The Bottom Line nightclub in Fort Myers served alcohol to a 19-year-old patron who then attacked Anderson in the parking lot, causing a traumatic brain injury with permanent memory loss and partial hearing loss.