BOSTON, Oct. 2 (AScribe Newswire) -- On Thursday, September 26, 2002, a jury in Los Angeles found Philip Morris (MO) liable for the lung cancer of Betty Bullock, a 64 year-old Newport Beach resident whose lung cancer has spread to her liver. The compensatory damages of $850,000 was awarded in the first phase of the trial. The same jury will return to the court room on Tuesday to hear testimony regarding the amount of punitive damages it will award. (Betty Bullock v. Philip Morris, Inc. - Los Angeles Sup. Ct. No. BC 249171)
In a similar case last year involving the same plaintiffs' attorney, Mike Piuze, the jury returned a $3 billion punitive damages verdict against Philip Morris, which was later reduced by the trial judge to $100 million.
At the same time, a jury in Puerto Rico ordered R.J. Reynolds Tobacco to pay two sons of a deceased smoker $500,000 each in a wrongful death action, according to an attorney for Reynolds. The trial judge, however, vacated one of the awards on statute of limitations grounds, leaving the total awarded at half a million dollars. The sons are represented by US Virgin Islands-based attorney Herbert Muriel. (Irene Cruz-Vargas v R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. - US Dist. Ct. Puerto Rico No. 00-2334)
All this comes in a week when a federal judge in New York certified a massive national class action for the punitive damages of all smokers in the U.S. and their heirs who have been injured by cigarettes since 1993. Philip Morris cut quarterly earnings estimates yesterday causing their stock value to tumble. Also, Philip Morris filed briefs this week in an appeal of a $145 billion punitive damages verdict against the tobacco industry in a Florida class action, the largest such award in the history of civil litigation.
Northeastern University School of Law Professor Richard Daynard, who also chairs the Tobacco Products Liability Project, observed that, "Cigarette makers have been minimizing the risks they face in litigation for years. But it is becoming increasingly difficult to stuff this 800 pound gorilla in the closet when juries thousands of miles away from each other are coming back with verdicts holding them liable on the same day."
"Based on the sheer number of cases pending against the tobacco companies, it is only a matter of time until we will see three juries return verdicts for the plaintiffs on the same day. The industry's defense of blaming the victim rings hollow in light of the companies' internal documents and the testimony of former industry insiders," noted TPLP attorney Mark Gottlieb. "When juries get the complete picture of what has been going on and what is still going on, they respond accordingly."
TPLP senior attorney Edward Sweda said that, "with yesteday's verdict in Los Angeles, the tobacco industry has lost six consecutive West Coast trials. But the Puerto Rico verdict, pending appeal of the $145 billion award in Florida, the national class action, and the U.S. Department of Justice's racketeering lawsuit against the industry demonstrates that cigarette makers have more than just a West Coast problem. They have a reprehensibility problem that will cost them."
See more at http://tobacco.neu.edu.
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