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Judge cuts $3-billion damages for smoker
©Los Angeles Times
© St. Petersburg Times, LOS ANGELES -- A Los Angeles judge ruled Thursday that a $3-billion award against Philip Morris Inc. was excessive but said that he will order a retrial only if the cancer-stricken plaintiff declines to accept a record-breaking $100-million in punitive damages. In his decision, Superior Court Judge Charles W. McCoy Jr. reprimanded the cigarettemaker for going to "extraordinary lengths to hide its own scientific information" about the health risks of smoking. Besides offering 56-year-old Richard Boeken the $100-million in punitive damages, the judge upheld an additional $5.54-million in compensatory damages for the Marlboro smoker and lung cancer victim. "Philip Morris' conduct was in fact reprehensible in every sense of the word, both legal and moral," McCoy wrote. Although the ruling gives Philip Morris some relief, the case remains a solid defeat for the tobacco industry. The award is the largest judgment against a tobacco company in a lawsuit brought by a single smoker. Company lawyers had expressed hope in court papers that the judge would reduce the punitive award to $25-million. The case is the second in which a California judge has cut a damage award against Philip Morris. A San Francisco jury ordered the cigarettemaker to pay lung cancer victim Patricia Henley $51.5-million in 1999, but a judge later reduced that award to $26.5-million. The case is under appeal. Lawyers for the tobacco company said they would aggressively appeal the judge's decision not to further reduce the $3-billion award. "Our appeal will request a complete reversal and retrial on multiple grounds, not the least of which was the passion and prejudice the jury displayed in reaching its verdict," said William S. Ohlemeyer, Philip Morris vice president and associate general counsel. "It's simply not believable that anyone living in America for the past 40 years could testify under oath that they were unaware of the risks of smoking," Ohlemeyer said. "For these and a multitude of other reasons, this verdict should be reversed." Boeken's lawyer, Michael Piuze did not immediately comment on the award. During a two-month trial that began in April, Piuze argued that the company lied to smokers and the government about the dangers and addictiveness of smoking. The tobacco company's lawyers countered that any public statements by the industry were overwhelmed by anti-smoking campaigns of health groups and government agencies. A jury awarded the $3-billion to Boeken in June. The jury found Philip Morris, the country's biggest cigarettemaker, guilty on all eight of Boeken's claims, including negligence, misrepresentation, fraud and selling a defective product. In his 27-page decision, McCoy wrote that Philip Morris' conduct had "devastating and widespread consequences" and that the company "refused to accept even a scintilla of responsibility for the harm it has done to Richard Boeken and other similarly situated consumers." He explained that Philip Morris knew by the early 1960s that nicotine in cigarettes was highly addictive and that the tar causes lung cancer. Yet the company, along with other U.S. tobacco companies, consistently claimed that cigarettes were neither addictive nor disease-producing. Despite his strong words, McCoy said that the $3-billion punitive damages award was legally excessive and was disproportionate to the compensatory damages traditionally given for medical relief and lost earnings. The ratio of the jury verdict was 540-to-1, and McCoy cut it to 20-to-1. Until Thursday's decision, McCoy wrote, no reported case with more than $1-million in compensatory damages had ever surpassed a ratio of 3-to-1. McCoy also wrote that in making his ruling, he took into consideration the fact that Philip Morris will likely face other large punitive damage awards. Boeken, a self-employed dealer in oil and gas securities, smoked for 40 years before he was diagnosed in 1999 with lung cancer that has since spread to his brain. He reportedly became hooked on Marlboro cigarettes as a teenager in the 1950s, when there were no warnings on cigarettes and smoking was considered "cool." Boeken must agree in writing to the $100-million award by Aug. 24, or Philip Morris will be granted a new trial on the punitive damages.
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