The U.S. Supreme Court today issued an order on a petition from Philip Morris to seek review for the third time of a $79.5 million punitive damages award in the case of an Oregon smoker who died from lung cancer caused by smoking Marlboro cigarettes.   The petition sought review of 2 legal questions: 1) whether the Oregon Supreme Court, on instructions from the U.S. Supreme Court to apply the "correct Constitutional standard" regarding a proposed jury instruction that was rejected at trial, can impose a state law-based procedural ruling for the first time in the litigation; and 2) "Whether a punitive damages award that is 97 times the compensatory damages may be upheld on the ground that the reprehensibility of a defendant’s conduct can “override” the constitutional requirement that punitive damages be reasonably related to the plaintiff’s harm."   

The second question was the more critical one in terms of its impact on tobacco litigation generally.  Because  the Court denied review on this question, it essentially provides tacit approval to enormous punitive damages against cigarette companies.  While in prior decisions, most notably State Farm v. Campbell, the Court seemed to be suggesting the possibility of Constitutional caps on punitive damages exceeding 4 or perhaps 9 times the amount of compensatory damages, today's order makes clear that no such caps apply to punishing the deadly and reprehensible conduct of cigarette companies.

The Court did agree to review the first question, however, which means that yet another chapter or two in the decade long saga of the case of Jesse Williams and Philip Morris have yet to be written.

Mark Gottlieb, Director of the Tobacco Products Liability Project (TPLP) of the Public Health Advocacy Institute, based at Northeastern University School of Law in Boston, noted that, "while the further delay in resolving this case comes as a disappointment to the Williams family, the significance of the Supreme Court's denial of certiorari on the size of the punitive damages gives trial and appellate judges critically important guidance on the limits of punitive damages against cigarette companies. Namely, that any such limits would have to be greater than 97 times the amount of the jury's compensatory damages award." 

Edward L. Sweda, Jr., Senior Attorney for TPLP, issued the following statement: “The U.S. Supreme Court today has given the green light to tobacco lawsuits in which punitive damages of up to at least 97 times the compensatory damages can be assessed.  Therefore, I expect more lawsuits to be filed on behalf of Americans harmed by the tobacco companies’ reprehensible misconduct.”

 

-- 30 --