Richard Boeken died of lung cancer in 2002 while Philip Morris was appealing a Los Angeles jury’s award granting him $3 billion in punitive damages and $5.5 million in compensatory damages—at the time the largest verdict to date in million a smoker case.
That verdict was later reduced to $50 million. His son, Dylan Boeken, in a subsequent wrongful death suit against Philip Morris, alleged he was deprived of his father’s consortium in the years leading to his death. A jury awarded $12.8 million on that claim in 2011.
