DHAKA: A Florida jury has awarded the widow of a chain smoker who died of lung cancer punitive damages of more than $23 bn in her lawsuit against the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, the nation's second-biggest cigarette maker.

The judgment, returned on Friday night, was the largest in Florida history in a wrongful death lawsuit filed by a single plaintiff, according to Ryan Julison, a spokesman for the woman's lawyer, Chris Chestnut.

Cynthia Robinson of the Florida Panhandle city of Pensacola sued the cigarette maker in 2008 over the death of her husband, Michael Johnson, reports Al-jazeera

Johnson, a hotel shuttle bus driver who died of lung cancer in 1996 at age 36, smoked one to three packs a day for more 20 years, starting at age 13, Chestnut said.

"He couldn't quit. He was smoking the day he died," the lawyer told Reuters on Saturday.

After a four-week trial and 11 hours of jury deliberations, the jury returned a verdict granting compensatory damages of $7.3 million to the widow and the couple's child, and $9.6 million to Johnson's son from a previous relationship.

The same jury deliberated for another seven hours before deciding to award Robinson the additional sum of $23.6 bn in punitive damages, according to the verdict forms.

The tobacco company, a unit of Reynolds American Inc, includes Camel cigarettes.

BDST: 1222 HRS, JUL 20, 2014