Philip Morris - A Stock For Wealth Or Poverty (MO) Message Board

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Non-Tech : Philip Morris - A Stock For Wealth Or Poverty (MO)

MO 58.07

-0.5%

Dec 19 9:30 AM EST

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To: md1derful who wrote (6274)	8/10/2001 12:30:44 PM
From: Jim Oravetz	Read Replies (1) of 6439

Judge Rules $3 Billion Verdict In Tobacco Case Was Excessive By GORDON FAIRCLOUGH Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL A Los Angeles judge tossed out a jury's $3 billion punitive-damage award against Philip Morris Cos. and said he would order a new trial unless the plaintiff in the case, a longtime smoker with lung cancer, agrees to accept a lower punitive judgment of $100 million. The judge, Charles W. McCoy Jr. of state Superior Court, wrote in a decision handed down late Thursday that while there was "clear and convincing" evidence that Philip Morris had committed fraud, the punitive damages assessed by the 12-member jury in June were "legally excessive." The jury found that Philip Morris, the nation's largest cigarette maker, was negligent and had committed fraud by misrepresenting the health dangers of smoking. In addition to the $3 billion punitive damages, the jury also awarded $5.5 million in compensatory damages to the plaintiff, 56-year-old Richard Boeken. The original punitive award was the largest to an individual in U.S. history. The combined damages were more than 37 times as large as the next-biggest award in a lawsuit by a sick smoker -- $80.3 million in damages assessed by an Oregon jury in 1999 and later reduced sharply by a judge. Philip Morris attacked the Los Angeles verdict in legal filings and in oral arguments before Judge McCoy on Monday, saying the gargantuan award was the result of "passion and prejudice" and should be set aside. The company urged the judge to reduce the punitive damages to no more than $25 million. Officials from Philip Morris weren't available to comment; neither was Mr. Boeken's lawyer, Michael J. Piuze.

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