Breaking News English

A court in the USA has the tobacco giant R.J. Reynolds to a woman $23.6 billion in damages. Cynthia Robinson a lawsuit against R.J. Reynolds in 2008 and for six years for compensation. Her husband Michael of lung cancer in 1996 after two decades of smoking. He smoking when he was 13 and died when he was 36. Mrs Robinson that the company was negligent in not informing her husband that nicotine is addictive and that smoking can to lung cancer. She said tobacco companies knew in the 1950s that smoking was potentially lethal and should have more active in telling people. Johnson's lawyer said: "He couldn't quit. He was smoking the day he ."

A lawyer for R.J. Reynolds, America's second-largest tobacco company, said the compensation was disproportionate. He said: "The damages in this case grossly excessive and impermissible under state and constitutional law." He : "This verdict far beyond the realm of reasonableness and fairness and is completely inconsistent with the evidence ." Mrs Robinson's lawyer Chris Chestnut said jurors at R.J. Reynolds' aggressive marketing, particularly campaigns at young people. He said: "[R.J. Reynolds] to Congress, they lied to the public, they lied to smokers and to blamed the smoker." He added that the jury's decision "courageous".