£12.5m ruling against tobacco company

An Arkansas man has been awarded more than $19m (€16.1m) after a jury found that a tobacco company’s defective product contributed to his wife’s death.

The federal verdict includes $15m (€12.7m) in punitive damages against Brown & Williamson Tobacco and $4m (€3.4m) in actual damages over the 1999 smoking-related death of Mary Jane Boerner.