Angered that cigarette companies knew for half a century that their products were a health hazard and then hid the information from the public, a San Francisco jury on Monday slapped a $20 million punitive damage award — $10 million each — on Philip Morris Inc. and R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.
The punitive damages are in addition to the $1.7 million the Superior Court jury assessed the cigarette makers in compensatory damages March 20, on behalf of a 40-year-old Ojai woman dying of lung cancer and her husband.
