TAMPA, Florida -- Leading U.S. tobacco manufacturer RJ Reynolds has sent out almost 200,000 dollars in compensatory damages to a Florida man who sued the company and has since died of cancer, the two sides in the dispute said Thursday.

But even though it sent out the check for 197,602 dollars, RJR is appealing the case filed in 2000 by Floyd Kenyon, AFP reported.

Kenyon, who died of lung cancer in September 2002 at the age of 73, claimed his illness was caused by two RJR brands -- the Camel cigarettes he smoked for 30 years and the Salem ones he smoked for another decade.

The tobacco company is yet to decide whether to present its appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court or the Florida Supreme Court, said RJR spokeswoman Ellen Matthews.

She said that under Florida law the check had to be issued to Kenyon's estate before the case could be appealed.

"They're fighting lawsuits from all over, like this one, and they're just delaying the inevitable," said Kenyon's lawyer Howard Acosta.

In recent years, U.S. tobacco manufacturers have been deluged with lawsuits from people claiming they became ill because of smoking, but the industry recently won a landmark decision when a huge class-action lawsuit was rejected by an appeals court in Miami.