Wczoraj Sad Najwyzszy USA odmowil rozpatrzenia apelacji Philip Morris od
wyroku Sad Najwyzszego Kalifornii w sprawie spowodowania raka pluc
Richarda Boekena. Oznacza to ze pozostaje w mocy wyrok nakazujacy
wyplacenie odszkodowania.

Piec lat temu lawa wybrana przez Philip Morris wydala wyrok nakazujacy
zaplacenie pol miliona dolarow odszkodowania ofiarze raka pluc oraz
dodadkowo nawiazke w wysokosci 3 miliardow dolarow. Sedzia zredukowal
nawiazke do 100 milionow a sad apelacyjny do 50 milionow.
Philip Morris musi teraz wyplacic zasadzona kwote plus odsetki wynoszace
polowe tek kwoty. Dodatkowo, koszta adwokata.

Richard Boeken nie zobaczy ani centa z tych pieniedzy. Zmarl wkrotce po
pierwszym wyroku.

http://www.supremecourtus.gov/docket/05-600.htm


Dzisiejszy The Los Angeles Times:

Widow's Legal Battle With Philip Morris Ends
By Myron Levin, Times Staff Writer
March 21, 2006

Five years after a landmark defeat in a Los Angeles courtroom, tobacco
giant Philip Morris USA has exhausted its appeals and will have to pay
record damages of more than $82 million to the widow of a longtime
smoker of its Marlboro cigarettes.

Without comment, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to review a
2001 verdict in the case filed by Richard Boeken of Topanga. Boeken, who
began smoking in his teens, died of cancer at 57, shortly after the
verdict in the first suit by an individual smoker ever tried in Los Angeles.

ADVERTISEMENT
Although cigarette makers have agreed to some major settlements,
including $246 billion to end lawsuits by the states, in more than 50
years of litigation, they have had to write checks to only a handful of
individual smokers.

The Boeken award -- consisting of $5.54 million in compensatory damages,
$50 million in punitive damages and more than $26 million in interest --
will be the largest recovery by an individual to date.

It will eclipse the previous record payment of $16.7 million last year
to a former smoker from Glendale. Philip Morris, a unit of Altria Group
Inc. and the top U.S. cigarette maker, lost that case too.

Boeken's widow, Judy Boeken, could not be reached for comment. But her
lawyer, Michael Piuze of Los Angeles, said she "is happy that the
litigation's over."

Ed Sweda, senior attorney for the Boston-based Tobacco Products
Liability Project, which encourages lawsuits against the tobacco
industry, said the Supreme Court's decision not to accept the appeal
"demonstrates that tobacco litigation remains a viable -- and still
emerging -- strategy to promote the public health."

Still, the award is a wisp of its original self. Outraged jurors in Los
Angeles County Superior Court had ordered Philip Morris to pay Boeken $3
billion in addition to compensatory damages in June 2001 after finding
the company guilty of fraud, negligence, misrepresentation and selling a
defective product.

Weeks later, the trial judge sliced the punitive award to $100 million.
A California appeals court then trimmed it to $50 million, despite its
finding that Philip Morris' conduct was "extremely reprehensible."

"The very conduct that injured Boeken was directed at all smokers in the
United States, repeated over many years with knowledge of the risk to
human life and health," and demonstrated "intentional deceit," the state
appeals court ruled last year.

But the panel also cited a 2003 U.S. Supreme Court opinion that punitive
damages usually should not exceed nine times the compensatory damages.
That ratio was reflected in the state appeals court ruling.

Piuze had argued that the ratio was a guideline, not a rule, and should
not protect a company that he said was responsible for millions of deaths.

Although the court's decision Monday was a victory for the plaintiff,
Piuze said he was not satisfied "with the end result, which is a penalty
of one half week of earnings" for Philip Morris.

Steven Rissman, associate general counsel for Altria Corporate Services
Inc., another unit of Altria, said Monday that he was not surprised the
Supreme Court declined to review the case. "You can never have the
highest of expectations when you're talking about a court that accepts
less than 100 of the 7,000 petitions that it's presented each year."

Legal analysts believe that the court may be more likely to consider an
appeal of another verdict that went well beyond the 9-to-1 guideline.

It's an Oregon case in which the $80-million award against Philip Morris
includes $79.5 million in punitive damages and $521,000 in compensatory
damages -- a ratio of more than 152 to 1.

The Oregon Supreme Court affirmed the verdict last month, setting the
stage for a last-ditch appeal to the nation's highest court.

The Boeken verdict was among a string of four straight big defeats for
cigarette makers in Los Angeles and San Francisco superior courts.

Rissman noted that since the last of these plaintiffs' victories in
2002, Philip Morris has successfully defended five consecutive
individual smoker cases in California.

Altria shares rose 4 cents Monday to $73.59.