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Smoker awarded US$3b for cancer
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A SMOKER with incurable lung and brain cancer was awarded a record US$3 billion in damages by a jury in Los Angeles on Wednesday which ruled that Philip Morris did not properly warn him of the risks of smoking.
The award was the largest individual punitive damage award ever against a cigarette maker and set off alarm bells in an industry facing similar suits.
Philip Morris Cos Inc vowed to try to get the award thrown out, and failing that appeal the decision. It called the massive award "outrageous" and said the plaintiff, Richard Boeken, had ignored health warnings by smoking two packs of Marlboro cigarettes a day for more than 40 years.
A Los Angeles Superior Court jury found against the tobacco giant for fraud, negligence and making a defective product.
The jury awarded US$3 billion in punitive damages and US$5.5 million in compensatory damages to Boeken, a securities and oil broker whose lung cancer has spread to his brain.
Last year, Philip Morris, which also markets a range of snack foods and Miller beer, earned almost US$11 billion from tobacco sales alone.
Jurors, who voted 10-2 for the record damages, said they had no sympathy for Philip Morris's arguments.
"There were too many things they kept trying to cover up, instead of being honest about their product," said Denise Key, a juror who said she had smoked for 15 years. "This man's life is over -- US$3 billion doesn't even begin to cover it."
Stock in Philip Morris dropped in after-hours trade in reaction to the award, falling to US$48.25 from a regular-session close of US$50 on the New York Stock Exchange.
The lawsuit -- the first smoking case to reach trial in Los Angeles -- was being watched closely because cigarette makers, having fended off lawsuits brought by individual smokers in other states, have been ordered to pay plaintiff's damages in three other California lawsuits filed by smokers. Those verdicts are under appeal.
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