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| | How Do You Put the Smoke Back in a Cig
By John Millrany - August 1, 2001You can't put the smoke back into the cigarette after it's
lit, but Phillip Morris Inc. is trying to put a cap on a staggering $3
billion-plus ticket handed down by Los Angeles County Superior Court against
the giant tobacco retailer last June.
The case was adjudicated on behalf of Richard Boeker,
who smoked for more than 40 of his 56 years before being diagnosed with brain
cancer, which had spread from his lungs. A jury found Phillip Morris liable for
$5.54 million in compensatory damages. What made the case a real stinker,
however, was the added punitive fee of $3 billion.
You could say that Phillip Morris is red hot about the whole
thing. In fact, it has filed a motion that will be heard Aug. 6 in Los Angeles
asking for a reduction in the verdict to a more, er, reasonable maximum: $25
million.
The tobacco company maintains that certain legal hangups
that occurred in Boeker's past should have been aired before the jury, but was
withheld.
Individual smokers' lawsuits on the West Coast have been
especially nettlesome to Phillip Morris, including a $26.5 million verdict in
San Francisco and a $32 million judgment in Portland, OR. Both the verdicts are
on appeal, as is another San Francisco ruling, co-assessed against Phillip
Morris and R.J Reynolds Tobacco Co., totaling $21.7 million.
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