Mealey's (December 17, 2018, 11:45 AM EST) -- WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — In a Dec. 12 ruling, Florida’s Fourth District Court of Appeal found that because a plaintiff’s wife’s lung cancer manifested after the Oct. 1, 1999, effective date of the enactment of Section 768.73(2)(a) of the Florida Statutes, a trial court erred in declining to apply the post-1999 version of the law, which bars successive awards of punitive damages against defendants accused of the same conduct in separate proceedings (Philip Morris USA Inc., et al. v. Stanley Martin, No. 4D17-574, Fla. App., 4th Dist., 2018 Fla. App. LEXIS 18006)....