THE US: A jury in California in the US has ordered tobacco giant Philip Morris to pay $28 billion in damages to a woman who smoked for more than 40 years and developed lung cancer, the company said yesterday.
Philip Morris said in a statement it would appeal the decision and said it should be overturned "because it is inconsistent with the evidence and applicable law". The jury awarded the punitive damages to Ms Betty Bullock (64) of Newport Beach near Los Angeles, who began smoking at age 17 and mainly smoked Philip Morris's Benson and Hedges cigarettes, until she was diagnosed with terminal cancer in February 2001. She had already been awarded $850,000 in compensatory damages.
During the trial, Philip Morris was accused of fraud and negligence for having concealed the addictiveness of smoking.
Lawyers for the tobacco firm told the jury last month Ms Bullock had "ignored the dangers of smoking for 30 years" and that Philip Morris "should not have to pay the cost of treating her lung cancer".
The same lawyer who represented Ms Bullock at the latest tobacco trial, Mr Michael Piuze, won a jury award of $3 billion against Philip Morris in a Los Angeles Superior Court case last year, marking a record at the time for an individual smoker's lawsuit.
The vice president and general counsel of Philip Morris, Mr William Ohlemeyer, said the punitive damage award was nearly 33,000 times greater than its compensatory damage award, far above legal guidelines established by the US Supreme Court.
"This jury should have focused on what the plaintiff knew about the health risks of smoking and whether anything the company ever said or did improperly influenced her decision to smoke or not to quit," he said.
"Instead, it appears that this decision speaks to more general policy issues regarding smoking that can't fairly be decided in lawsuits like this."
Philip Morris said it would file "a prompt and timely motion with the trial court seeking to set aside the verdict and order a new trial" and if that failed would ask the court to reduce the amount of punitive damages awarded.
"If the request for a new trial is denied, the company intends to pursue an appeal of the verdict with the California Court of Appeals," the company said. - (AFP)