Law 360 and Bloomberg Law are reporting on a Florida Supreme Court decision that prohibits a smoker’s family from recovering punitive damages from RJ Reynolds.

Florida passed a law in 1999 that prevents courts from imposing punitive damages on a defendant who has already been subjected to punitive damages for the same conduct.  The Supreme Court addressed whether that law applied to a situation in which a smoker filed a lawsuit before 1999, and then his heirs filed a new lawsuit for wrongful death after 1999.  The court ruled that wrongful death actions are distinct from personal injury actions, and the wrongful death action did not arise until the smoker died in 2007, was was therefore governed by the 1999 law.