Products Liability Law Reporter

A Florida appellate court held that the 2001 Engle stipulation, which required several participating defendants in that litigation to place approximately $2 billion into escrow to secure payment in that case notwithstanding an appeal, does not require a credit against judgments in individual Engle progeny cases.

Here, Veda Bryant, whose late husband was addicted to cigarettes, brought an Engle progeny suit against Philip Morris USA, Inc., and received a $681,000 judgment. On appeal, the defendant argued, in part, that the 2001 stipulation necessitates reducing the plaintiff’s punitive damages award.

Affirming, the appellate court noted that the parties to the stipulation agreed that the retained amounts at issue in the stipulation, known as the guaranteed sum, would constitute a dollar-for-dollar credit against payment of the punitive damages component of the Engle judgment. The court found that no portion of the plaintiff’s judgment constitutes the punitive damages component of the Engle judgment.

Although the plaintiff established liability using certain findings from the original Engle trial, the court said, that does not mean that her judgment is a component of the Engle judgment. Citing case law, the court added that although res judicata bars relitigation of certain matters in subsequent causes of action, it does not make a later judgment a component of an earlier one.

Thus, the court concluded that the plaintiff’s judgment was separate and apart from the Engle judgment, and, therefore, a credit is not required here under the Engle stipulation.

Citation: Philip Morris USA Inc. v. Bryant, 2019 WL 1986118 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. May 6, 2019).

Plaintiff counsel: Douglas Eaton, Miami.