Judge Halves $50-Million Tobacco Award

A San Francisco judge Tuesday cut in half a landmark $50-million punitive damages award against Philip Morris but excoriated the firm and denied its request to retry the case of a former Marlboro smoker who contracted lung cancer.

The ruling by San Francisco Superior Court Judge John E. Munter means that the nation’s biggest tobacco company must pay $26.5 million to Patricia Henley of Los Angeles--including $1.5 million in compensatory and $25 million in punitive damages. A San Francisco jury in February had awarded Henley $51.5 million, prompting Philip Morris to file motions for a directed verdict or new trial.

While Munter granted some relief, the case still stands as a major defeat for Philip Morris. A clearly angry jury had awarded $50 million in punitive damages even though Henley’s lawyers had requested only $15 million. Tobacco officials had hoped Munter would reduce the award at least to the requested amount.

Philip Morris said it will take the case to the state Court of Appeal. “We are pleased that the punitive damages have been cut in half, and while we would have liked the court to have granted our motions in their entirety, we recognize that it is rare that a trial court will completely overturn a verdict,” said James R. Cherry, associate general counsel for Philip Morris, in a prepared statement.

“Needless to say, we all anticipated the [award] was going to be cut,” said Harry Wartnick of the law firm of Wartnick, Chaber, Harowitz, Smith & Tigerman, which represented Henley. “I think he [Munter] came to a fair number.”

In rejecting the request for a new trial, Munter said evidence presented in the case “was fully sufficient to support the jury’s findings in every respect.”

Quoting extensively from incriminating documents offered as exhibits in the case, Munter said the evidence revealed “a high degree of reprehensibility” in the behavior of Philip Morris.

“Such conduct was not isolated, sporadic, occasional or temporary,” Munter wrote. “Rather, it spanned many decades, and the effect was injury to a very large number of persons annually and in the most serious ways, including death from lung cancer.”

Following the Henley verdict, a record for a smoking and health case, a jury in Portland, Ore., two weeks ago produced an even more stunning result--an $80-million award against Philip Morris in a case filed by the family of another Marlboro smoker who died of lung cancer.

Defense lawyers will also ask the judge in that case to set aside the verdict or reduce the award.

Following these losses, industry analysts are intently watching a trio of smoking and health cases being tried before a single jury in Memphis, Tenn. Verdicts are expected late this month or in early May.