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Jury issues $51.5 million award against
Philip Morris Posted 2-22-99 In the largest award ever issued against a tobacco manufacturer, a San Francisco jury ordered cigarette maker Philip Morris to pay $50 million in punitive damages and $1.5 million in compensatory damages to Patricia Henley, a Los Angeles woman diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer a year ago. "I didn’t think we were going to win," Henley said. "I hope it sends a message to them: You can’t make a profit by killing people." Henley, a former three-pack-a-day smoker, said she filed the suit after learning how long the company had known about the addictive nature of its product. The suit is the first of its kind in California since the 1997 repeal of a law that banned individual lawsuits against the tobacco industry. Henley, who smoked her first cigarette when she was 15, said all the money will be used to finance programs that will educate children about the dangers of smoking. "I want the public to be aware of the lies; it’s not about money," she said. Attorneys for Philip Morris said in a written statement that "the verdict appeared to have been an emotional decision on the part of the jury ... [Lawsuits] should be decided on the evidence presented, not on sympathy." The company plans to appeal the award. Similar awards against tobacco companies have been overturned, or reduced according to industry experts. The verdict represents a turning of the tide against cigarette manufacturers, said Stanton Glantz, MD, professor of medicine at UCSF and author of the book Cigarette Papers. "It’s a tremendous step forward. It shows that the tobacco industry’s tactics of stonewalling don’t work any more." Related Site |