Blountstown native Robert Trammell and a team of fellow attorneys from four other firms have secured a $30 million verdict for a Marianna man in a lawsuit against a tobacco company. In a trial that took place in Marianna and lasted more than three weeks, Plaintiff Emmon Smith has been awarded $10 Million in compensatory damages (70% against R.J. Reynolds) and $20 Million in punitive damages in a landmark decision by a Jackson County Court. Mr. Smith was represented by the firms of Richard J. Diaz, PA, Ratzan Law Group, PA, J.B. Harris, PA, Crabtree & Associates, and Robert Trammell, PA.
Emmon Smith, a Marianna minister, started smoking at age 13 in 1944. He tried numerous times to quit but was unsuccessful until 1992 when he was diagnosed with lung cancer, had his left lung removed and was advised by his doctors that smoking had caused his disease. Mr. Smith filed the lawsuit in 2009 as an Engle progeny case named for a disbanded statewide class action named after a Miami Beach pediatrician who was the lead plaintiff in the class action 2007 lawsuit filed in Miami-Dade Circuit Court. He filed the lawsuit on the grounds that he was addicted and diagnosed with a smoking-related disease.
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