US Supreme Court Throws Out 79.5 Million Dollar Award in Smoking Case

The US Supreme Court threw out a 79.5-million- dollar award to the family of a man who died from lung cancer, the court said in a decision released Tuesday.

Image courtesy: Illinois State University

(WASHINGTON) - The Supreme Court found that a lower court allowed jurors to go beyond compensatory damages for a smoker's family, they have thrown out a $79.5 million punitive damages award to the widow.

The Tuesday decision is seen as a benefit for organizations that seek to impose stricter limitations on jury verdict awards.

The 5-4 ruling was a victory for Altria Group Inc.'s (MO) Philip Morris USA. The company had contested Oregon's Supreme Court decision which upheld the verdict.

The case involves a 1999 award from an Oregon jury tfor the family of Jesse D Williams. A janitor, Mr. Williams died in 1997 of lung cancer at the age of 67.

In the majority opinion written by Justice Stephen Breyer, states must "provide assurances that juries are not asking the wrong question ... seeking, not simply to determine reprehensibility, but also to punish for harm caused strangers."

Philip Morris's attorneys had asked for the decision on whether the size of the award was constitutionally excessive, but that did not happen.

Widow Mayola Williams sued Philip Morris, the manufacturer of Marlboro, for fraud over the death of her husband. Jesse Williams died of lung cancer more than nine years ago, after 45-years of smoking more than two packs a day.

Punitive damages are awarded with the intention of punishing a defendant for its behavior and to deter repetition.

Mayola Williams said the jury award was appropriate because it punished Philip Morris' misconduct for a decades-long "massive market-directed fraud" that misled people into thinking cigarettes were not dangerous or addictive. She says her husband never gave any creserious thought to the surgeon general's health warnings about smoking cigarettes because tobacco companies insisted they were safe. But after becoming sick, she recalls this statement, "Those darn cigarette people finally did it. They were lying all the time."

An Oregon jury had originally awarded the punitive 79.5 million award on top of 821,000 dollars in compensatory or actual damages, which were later reduced under state law to 521,000 dollars.