$2 Million Engle-Progeny Award Overturned; Knowledge of Injury Made Claim Untimely

Philip Morris USA Inc. won reversal Feb. 22 of an approximately $2 million judgment for the family of a lifelong Florida smoker on statute-of-limitations grounds (Philip Morris USA Inc. v. Barbanell, No. 4D09-3987).

The jury’s conclusion, in the first phase of the trial, about Shirley Barbanell’s knowledge of her smoking-related injury should have foreclosed the second phase, for determination of liability and damages, the Florida District Court of Appeal, Fourth District, ruled. The trial court was wrong to deny Philip Morris’s requests for a directed verdict during the proceedings, Judge Spencer D. Levine wrote for the appellate panel. ...