Reynolds redress is likely to go up in smoke.

• Position: TRIAD REGION

Florida jury ordered R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. to pay Cynthia Robinson, a widow of a smoker, punitive damages totaling more than three-fourths the company's market value and a sum that would make her the 16th-richest American. But the award will never materialize, based on precedent. The $23.6 billion jury verdict is the third biggest tied to smoking-related health problems and deaths, but past appeals have cut actual payouts to no more than $79.5 million. The case, involving a smoker who died of lung cancer in 1996, was part of a class-action lawsuit filed against tobacco companies in 1994. The Florida Supreme Court overturned the $145 billion verdict in the case--Engle v. R.J. Reynolds--in 2006 and said plaintiffs had to seek claims through individual lawsuits. An appeal was filed by R.J. Reynolds, a subsidiary of Winston-Salem-based Reynolds American Inc., which was valued at $30.5 billion in late June. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2003 that punitive damages should be no more than nine times actual damages, though some judges have made...