the creator <c...@a...net> wrote in news:unXTf.2909$yo1.1797@trndny09:

> 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.
>

Dzien dobry Panie Jurku, mnie tez to nie martwi i tak te szumowiny za
dlugo siedza na tych stolkach.