One day after the tenth anniversary of the multi-million dollar verdict for the plaintiff in the Oregon case of Williams v. Philip Morris USA, Inc., the Supreme Court issued a per curiam order today that the tobacco giant’s “writ of certiorari is dismissed as improvidently granted.”    This means that Philip Morris' appeal should not have been heard by the Court because it lacked sufficient merit.
 
            While the original jury award was $821,485 in compensatory damages and $79.5 million in punitive damages, the case was sent to the Supreme Court of the United States on three separate occasions, with the final trip ending in total defeat for Philip Morris today.
           
            The Oregon Supreme Court’s January 31, 2008 opinion therefore is upheld. 
 
            “After a reference in the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2003 decision in State Farm v. Campbell that due process generally requires a limit of a single-digit ratio between the punitive damages and the underlying compensatory damages in a case, there was speculation that such a limit would be required even in tobacco products liability cases.   However, the Oregon Supreme Court had rightly held that the degree of Philip Morris’ reprehensibility was so severe that due process provided for a ratio beyond an artificial limit of single digits,” said Edward L. Sweda, Jr., Senior Attorney for the Tobacco Products Liability Project (TPLP).  “I am especially delighted that the Williams family has finally achieved victory in its attempt to hold Philip Morris accountable in a court of law for its reprehensible misconduct,” Sweda added.  
 
            “Today’s order marks the third consecutive major defeat for the tobacco industry before the U.S. Supreme Court,” said TPLP's Director Mark Gottlieb, noting that in June 2007 the Court had unanimously rejected Philip Morris’ attempted defense of light cigarette lawsuits on the historically inaccurate grounds that the Federal Trade Commission had “authorized” the company’s conduct regarding using descriptors of light cigarettes.  Last December, the Court, in Altria Group. Inc. v. Good, rejected Philip Morris’ argument that the Federal Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act preempts consumer protection lawsuits over the company’s light cigarette scam.  "Today's ruling removes any doubt that very high punitive damages are available against cigarette companies, including in the 8,000 or so cases moving to trial in Florida," Gottlieb concluded.