$37.5 Million Verdict for Miami Lawyer Who Lost His Tongue to Tobacco Cancer
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.
What happened
John Lukacs was not a typical tobacco plaintiff. A former Navy fighter pilot and longtime Miami real estate lawyer, he had smoked up to three packs a day for roughly 30 years, starting in an era when cigarettes came free in military rations. By the time he quit in the early 1970s, the damage was done. A bladder cancer diagnosis came in 1991, followed by oral cancer in 1997. Surgery to address the oral cancer required removing his tongue.
By 2002, Lukacs was 76 years old and his doctors gave him about seven months to live. He sued Philip Morris, Brown and Williamson, and the Liggett Group, arguing the cigarette manufacturers had concealed the addictive and carcinogenic properties of their products while he was a smoker. The case arose from the broader wave of individual Engle progeny suits that followed a Florida class-action proceeding.
Philip Gerson of Gerson and Schwartz was one of the lawyers who represented Lukacs at trial in Miami-Dade Circuit Court. The jury deliberated less than eight hours before returning its verdict. It apportioned liability at 50 percent to Liggett, 22.5 percent each to Philip Morris and Brown and Williamson, and 5 percent to Lukacs himself for comparative fault. The gross compensatory award came to $37.5 million.
The court subsequently reduced that gross figure, and in August 2008 it entered a final judgment of $24,835,000 plus interest. Florida's Third District Court of Appeal then reviewed the case and affirmed that judgment, issuing its opinion in 2010 as Philip Morris USA Inc. v. Lukacs, 34 So. 3d 56 (Fla. 3d DCA 2010).
The result stood as a substantial compensatory award against three of the largest tobacco companies in the country, decided in the early wave of individual Engle progeny trials in Florida.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
- 1.Deseret News (Associated Press wire article), June 12 2002. Names Philip Gerson as one of Lukacs's lawyers, reports the $37.5M gross compensatory award and case facts including liability apportionment
- 2.Philip Morris USA Inc. v. Lukacs, 34 So. 3d 56 (Fla. 3d DCA 2010). Published appellate opinion affirming the reduced final judgment