Late last Friday, after nearly four weeks of trial proceedings, an Orlando jury returned a verdict in favor of the defendants in a civil trial alleging the antidepressant Zoloft caused Gary Torrence to commit suicide.

Our friends at Legal Newsline have more details on the case available here. This was the second time the case went before a jury after an earlier mistrial last year. Pfizer, the drug’s manufacturer, was no longer a party to the case when when trial proceedings began last month.

The full trial was video recorded and webcast gavel-to-gavel, which is available for viewing via Courtroom View Network.

Weick v. R.J. Reynolds (Tampa, Florida).

Florence Weick brought this lawsuit on behalf of Richard Weick, who died of lung cancer in 1997. Mr. Weick started smoking in 1942, at the age of 13, 24 years before the first warning label appeared on any cigarette package.

Steven Ruth, of Beltz & Ruth, told the jury, “They knew all along that their products were addicting people, and they knew all along that their products would bring about death. But they decided — they chose — to make it as easy as possible for people to start smoking…and to make it as difficult as possible for people to quit. And they decided to make it as easy as possible for people to relapse after they had quit.

“You are going to get a rare glimpse into the private, secret, confidential world of many of these cigarette manufacturers. And what you’re going to see is not very heartwarming.

“We contend that R.J. Reynolds made choices throughout its corporate existence, through these decades, after they knew what was going on, and that they are responsible for their choices just like Richard Weick is responsible for his choices.

“Now the evidence that you are going to see in these documents doesn’t just show that they placed profits above human life. It shows that they did it without a real care, and without a thought.“

Representing R.J. Reynolds, Jones Day’s Steve Kaczynski told the jury, “This case is not about whether smoking causes cancer — it can. This is not about whether smoking is addictive — it is.

“Instead, this case is very specifically about Mr. Weick and what happened to him. This case is about Richard Weick and the choices he made. And this case is about whether R.J. Reynolds did anything or said anything that at all influenced any of his choices. And the evidence in this case will show that nothing that Reynolds did…influenced anything that Mr. Weick did.“

“Now what choices am I talking about? It’s really two: The choice to smoke, and the choice to continue to smoke.“

The jury found that addiction to cigarettes was not the legal cause of Mr. Weick’s death.

Mr. Kaczynski’s other Engle trials include Brown v. R.J. Reynolds and Kirkland v. R.J. Reynolds

CVN webcast Weick v. Phillip Morris  live.

The jury in Kirkland v. R.J. Reynolds took the advice of Jones Day’s Stephen Kaczyinski and awarded just $250K in punitive damages against R.J. Reynolds, the smallest punitive damages award yet in an Engle case in which punitive damages were found to be warranted.

The $250K Kirkland punitive damage award beats the the prior record for least-punitive-damages-in-an-Engle-case, which was set last summer in Piendle v. R.J. Reynolds. In Piendle, Jones Day’s Peter Biersteker talked a jury down from a $4M compensatory damage award to just $270K in punitive damages, split between R.J. Reynolds and Philip Morris.

A modest punitive damage award isn’t the only thing that the Piendle and Kirkland cases share in common. In both trials, R.J. Reynolds CFO Tom Adams testified during the punitive damages phase as to R.J. Reynolds’ financial condition. CVN has not seen Mr. Adams testify in any other trials. Could just be a coincidence.

CVN webcast the Kirkland Tobacco trial live.

Meg Whitman testified all morning, and Pierre Omidyar in the afternoon, on the first day of the trial pitting eBay against Craigslist in their battle for corporate control.