Up to 50,000 sick Florida smokers and families of dead smokers will receive the proceeds from a $600-million fund set up by tobacco companies as part of a long-running lawsuit, Business Week reported April 21.

The fund was established during the course of the 14-year-old Engle class-action lawsuit, which ended in 2006 when the Florida Supreme Court threw out a $145-billion damages award. Sick smokers and their families have until June 16 to register for payments from the Engle Trust Fund, named for lead plaintiff Howard Engle. Proof of smoking-related illness will be required from those seeking a payout.

The judge in the case ordered that the money be distributed equally among all sick Florida smokers who became ill prior to Nov. 21, 1996, rather than just the plaintiffs who were party to the case. The judge also awarded $218 million in fees to the attorneys who filed the case, Stanley and Susan Rosenblatt.

In throwing out the class-action lawsuit, the Florida Supreme Court agreed that tobacco companies sold dangerous products and concealed these dangers, and allowed individual lawsuits against tobacco companies to go forward. More than 7,000 such suits have been filed.