Jury awards $28 billion to smoker
Philip Morris ordered to pay damages to woman with cancer
BREAKING NEWS
LOS ANGELES, Oct. 4 — A Los Angeles jury Friday ordered tobacco giant Philip Morris Cos. to pay $28 billion in punitive damages to a 64-year-old woman with lung cancer who blamed her tobacco addiction on the company’s failure to warn her of the risks of smoking.
THE JURY DELIBERATED FOR about a day and a half in the punitive damages phase of the trial before awarding what is believed to be the largest punitive damages award in a tobacco liability lawsuit.
The same panel found Philip Morris liable last week for the fraud, negligence and products liability claims in the lawsuit brought by Betty Bullock of Newport Beach, California, and awarded Bullock $850,000 in compensatory damages.
Philip Morris was not immediately available for comment.
Shares of U.S. tobacco companies dipped across the board after news of the jury award.
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