A Los Angeles County Superior Court jury awarded a staggering US$28 billion in punitive damages on Friday to a smoker with lung cancer who had accused Philip Morris Inc of luring her into a lifelong tobacco habit with fraudulent advertising and marketing.
The award, to Betty Bullock, 64, of Newport Beach, was by far the largest punitive damage amount ever granted an individual plaintiff in a smoking case.
The previous record, US$3 billion, was won in a California court last year by the same lawyer who represented Bullock, Michael Piuze.
At a news conference after the decision, Piuze said the jury had seen company documents that he said proved that Philip Morris had engaged in a 50-year conspiracy to hide the harmful effects of its products.
"Having seen those documents," Piuze said, "the jury was properly horrified and did exactly the right thing."
He said he expected that Bullock, who is in the final stages of cancer, would "never see a penny" of the damage award. But he said he was gratified to have defeated Philip Morris, which, along with other cigarette makers, has suffered a string of court losses.
Philip Morris quickly announced that it would ask the court to reverse the jury's verdict and order a new trial. If the request for a new trial is denied, the company said, it will appeal the verdict to the California Court of Appeals.
"The jury should have focused on what the plaintiff knew about the health risks of smoking," said William Ohlemeyer, vice president and associate general counsel at Philip Morris. "And whether anything the company ever said or did improperly influenced her decision to smoke or not to quit."
The tobacco industry has been hit with a number of huge damage awards in the past several years, but most have been reduced on appeal. The US$3 billion won by Piuze's other client, Richard Boeken, a former heroin addict with cancer who died earlier this year, was reduced to US$100 million.
Richard Daynard, a law professor at Northeastern University and an expert on tobacco litigation, said Friday's award made it clear it's open season on cigarette manufacturers.
"The jury looks at a case like this and asks how much money is appropriate punishment for a company that knowingly sent millions of their customers to early deaths in order to maximize their profits," Daynard said.
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