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Philip Morris gets break in damage award
LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- A Los Angeles judge reduced a landmark tobacco damage award by billions of dollars Wednesday, ordering cigarette maker Philip Morris to pay $28 million instead of $28 billion. In October, a jury awarded plaintiff Betty Bullock, who is 64 and dying of lung cancer, $850,000 in compensatory damages and $28 billion in punitive damages after finding Philip Morris was guilty of fraud and negligence for failing to warn her of the risks of smoking. The award was the largest single judgment ever lodged against the tobacco giant. Judge Warren Ettinger ruled Wednesday there was sufficient evidence to support the jury's verdict in the case, but he agreed with Philip Morris' contention that the award was excessive. Ettinger gave Bullock until December 27 to accept his decision or he would order a new trial. Philip Morris said it would appeal the reduced award and the verdict itself. The company contends even the new award amount is still excessive. In a statement, the company said the verdict was based on improper jury instruction and an improper closing argument by the plaintiff's attorney, which it claims urged the jury to nullify the law. "It was clear that this jury was intent on sending the tobacco industry a message. The jury may believe there should be additional control over an industry that makes and markets a unique and inherently dangerous product," said Philip Morris attorney William S. Ohlemeyer in the statement. The statement said that even after the award was reduced, it still exceeds the 4-to-1 ratio of the punitive award to the compensatory damage award that the U.S. Supreme Court has suggested approaches the constitutional limit. Bullock's attorney, Michael Piuze, said he was "extremely disappointed" in the judge's ruling. "Philip Morris earns over $14 million per day from selling cigarettes in the United States. Judge Ettinger has fined Phillip Morris two days of its earnings," Piuze said. "In California, a motorist who drives in the carpool lane without any passengers is fined $271, which is two days' pay for the average Californian. "If two days' pay is the proper fine for a traffic violation, then two days' pay is not the proper fine for [Philip Morris'] role in killing so many Americans over a 50-year period. This is not a real punishment for Phillip Morris." In October, Ohlemeyer played down the landmark award by saying similar cases "have produced very big headlines and a year -- sometimes two years -- later an appellate court decides a jury wasn't given a fair opportunity to decide the case, so the verdicts get set aside or reversed. Richard Daynard of Northeastern University Law School in Boston said in October the jury in the case heard a familiar argument from the plaintiff's attorney. Daynard runs the Tobacco Products Liability Project, which he described as a public interest advocacy project designed to encourage lawsuits against the tobacco industry. Bullock's attorney built his case around well-publicized denials from the tobacco industry that smoking causes lung cancer and the industry's failure to follow through on promises of more research into the issue, Daynard said. Daynard predicted in October the trial judge would reduce the $28 billion judgment but would allow at least $100 million in damages. Last year, a California state judge ruled that a $3 billion verdict against Philip Morris was excessive, cutting it to $100 million. That case, which was brought by the same plaintiff's attorney, is still in the appeal process.
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