Last month, a Los Angeles jury awarded $13.8 million in punitive damages to the daughter of Betty Bullock, a smoker who had sued Philip Morris USA Inc. before she died of cancer. It was a huge loss -- for the plaintiff. Just seven years before, a different jury in the same case had awarded a record $28 billion in punitives. What happened between 2002 and last month? Lawyers on both sides of smoker cases say jurors today are less willing to impose severe punishment than jurors just a decade ago.
September 21, 2009 at 12:00 AM
1 minute read
The original version of this story was published on Law.Com
Last month, a Los Angeles jury awarded $13.8 million in punitive damages to the daughter of Betty Bullock, a smoker who had sued Philip Morris USA Inc. before she died of cancer. It was a huge loss — for the plaintiff.
Just seven years before, a different jury in the same case had awarded a record $28 billion in punitives. Philip Morris appealed that blow, and eventually a California appellate court ordered a retrial, leading to the much diminished result of Aug. 24.
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