Jury Awards Record $28 Billion to Ex-Smoker

[achtungbaby]

"I didn't know!!"

A jury awarded a record-shattering $28 billion in punitive damages today to a 64-year-old former smoker who sued Philip Morris Inc. for fraud and negligence.

Analysts said the verdict will almost certainly be reduced on appeal. But the jaw-dropping amount suggested growing hostility toward the tobacco industry.

The Superior Court jury awarded the amount to Betty Bullock, who started smoking when she was 17 and was diagnosed last year with lung cancer that has since spread to her liver. Last month, the jury ordered the tobacco company to pay Bullock $750,000 in damages and $100,000 for pain and suffering.

Philip Morris said it would ask the court to set aside the verdict and order a new trial.

The previous record for a verdict won by an individual against a tobacco company was $3 billion, awarded in June 2001 to Richard Boeken, a former heroin addict with cancer who died in January. But a California judge last year reduced that verdict againt Philip Morris to $100 million.

"I think the judge will see this as a runaway jury award," Merrill Lynch tobacco analyst Martin Feldman said. He noted that Philip Morris has never lost a case on appeal.

During Bullock's trial, Philip Morris did not try to defend its past actions. Instead, the company turned the spotlight on Bullock and her decision to smoke. The strategy was a major shift from previous defense efforts.

"Testimony during the trial showed that Ms. Bullock was aware of the health risks of smoking and was warned repeatedly of those risks by her doctors over four decades, and her daughter also urged her to quit. Her response: 'I am an adult, this is my business,'" said William Ohlemeyer, the company's associate general counsel.

Bullock's lawyer, Michael Piuze, argued that Philip Morris concealed the dangers of cigarettes with a widespread disinformation campaign that began in the 1950s. He told jurors it was "the largest fraud scheme ever perpetrated by corporations anywhere."

Piuze used photographs of Bullock, cigarette ads from her teenage years and internal tobacco industry documents to lay out his contention that Philip Morris concealed the dangers of cigarettes.

The company denied any campaign to fool smokers.

Two years ago, a jury awarded thousands of Florida smokers $145 billion in punitive damages against Philip Morris, R.J. Reynolds, Brown & Williamson, Lorillard and Liggett. The award has been appealed.

"At this point, it's really open season on the industry," said Richard Daynard, a law professor at Northeastern University in Boston and chairman of the Tobacco Products Liability Project.

"Juries all around the country are sending a message that this conduct was not only totally inexcusable but that it was so outrageous there is no amount of money that would be enough to punish the people who perpetrated it,"

The California case also drew interest because it follows an Aug. 5 state Supreme Court ruling that grants cigarette makers a new window of immunity. The decision said most statements and acts by tobacco companies between 1988 and 1998 cannot be used as evidence against them because of a law, now repealed, shielding them from liability.

Some analysts think the ruling will give cigarette makers ammunition to overturn three recent plaintiff awards in California-- including the Boeken verdict, which was also won by Piuze.

[angel nympho]

That's fucking unfair. The decision to start smoking was HERS. This reminds of the fatass who sued fast food chains. Why should SHE get the money??? There are millions of lives that have been ruined by smoking, all of them JUST as deserving as hers.

Maybe I should start smoking so I can get money when my health fails. There is NOBODY out there these days that doesn't know that smoking is unhealthy. Therefore, the tobacco companies should no longer be at fault for the health of their customers. Ain't nobody put that fucking cigarette in her mouth and forced her to suck it!!!

[achtungbaby]

Well, to her credit, according to her attorneys, she began smoking at a time when Philip Morris was indeed telling the public that either smoking wasn't bad for you or that studies were inconclusive, even though they knew it caused cancer.

But $28 billion?!? Jesus Christ. All it does is make it worse for the rest of us who want to smoke in peace.

[Reinhard H.]

Yeah, ridiculous, if they at least awarded the money to some health cause or anti smoking campaign, for what has SHE deserved billions?! People need to quit blaming others for their own mistakes.

[ChinaLama]

I've never smoked so i really can't judge, but can it really be THAT hard for her to quit or try to quit over 40 or close to 50 years?



<!--EDIT|ChinaLama|Oct 5 2002, 02:27 AM-->

[Chris]

Okay these judgement are getting fucking stupid. $28 billion for smoking when the victims of 9-11 are getting around 2 million each.

[thaite]

Originally posted by Chris@Oct 4 2002, 07:30 PM
Okay these judgement are getting fucking stupid. $28 billion for smoking when the victims of 9-11 are getting around 2 million each.

I agree. Those awards are ludicrous.

[achtungbaby]

Originally posted by Chris@Oct 4 2002, 06:30 PM
Okay these judgement are getting fucking stupid. $28 billion for smoking when the victims of 9-11 are getting around 2 million each.

Werd.

[angel nympho]

Originally posted by Chris@Oct 5 2002, 02:30 AM
Okay these judgement are getting fucking stupid. $28 billion for smoking when the victims of 9-11 are getting around 2 million each.

Lets emphasize the word *VICTIMS.* I agree that maybe it's a bit much, but they didn't ask to have a plane explode in their faces.

[AliBabaIncorporated]

$28 billion? yo get a clue dumb bitch. you were setting a ground up plant on fire and inhaling the smoke. first time you did it, you probably coughed like nuts. and you're telling me you were ignorant of the risks and that it wasn't your fault you smoked to the extent that you deserve $28 billion of the fucking shareholders' money? What happened to PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY?

For comparison, the GDP of Botswana, the most economically successful country in Africa and the country with the highest GDP growth rate in the world, was $10.3 billion in 2000. To produce $28 billion of economic output, the average American worker would have to work continuously, 24 hours a day, for 2,342 centuries.

[ChinaLama]

but one thing i gotta say is...her lawyer musta really ROCKED! Gotta give him props for his illl skillz.



<!--EDIT|ChinaLama|Oct 5 2002, 06:10 AM-->

[sandra]

i thought the argument was that, during the time she began, phillip morris was advocating the idea that smoking was *not* hazardous to one's health. so why are we calling her a dumb bitch?

[Craig]

Who is their right mind thinks smoking is good for your health ? I am assuming if she's like most human beings that she would have been coughing badly the first time she tried smoking. That in itself should warrant a person with a nominally functionally brain that the action isn't good for her health. She is being harked at not only for being mentally challenged, but for not taking responsibility for her own actions. Just like that damn buffoon who is suing McDonalds for being fat.

[sandra]

Originally posted by Craig@Oct 6 2002, 01:37 AM
Who is their right mind thinks smoking is good for your health ? I am assuming if she's like most human beings that she would have been coughing badly the first time she tried smoking. That in itself should warrant a person with a nominally functionally brain that the action isn't good for her health. She is being harked at not only for being mentally challenged, but for not taking responsibility for her own actions. Just like that damn buffoon who is suing McDonalds for being fat.

i wasn't coughing badly the first time i smoked. besides, we are criticizing her judgment with the knowledge that we have right now--with 20/20 hindsight. isn't that a bit unfair? there are plenty of people in asia right now that are not aware of the bad effects of smoking.

[Craig]

Originally posted by kasia@Oct 6 2002, 01:44 AM

i wasn't coughing badly the first time i smoked. &nbsp;besides, we are criticizing her judgment with the knowledge that we have right now--with 20/20 hindsight. &nbsp;isn't that a bit unfair? &nbsp;there are plenty of people in asia right now that are not aware of the bad effects of smoking.

I think the knowledge base that smoking was bad for your health was readily available in the 60s. As a little kid (preschool age) in the 70s I knew that smoking was bad for a person's health. There is certainly no reason anybody alive today should be ingesting any products without questioning the health benefits beforehand. If people in Asia as smoking right now and get lung cancer, let them die. If they are sniffing airplane glue or whatnot, or partaking in other similar habits, let them take responsibility for their actions. Is there somebody out there that thinks it's a medicinal product or something ? It's not like it's a starving person that is eating beef that doesn't know about the potential risk of Mad Cow's disease.



<!--EDIT|Craig|Oct 6 2002, 02:09 AM-->