The U.S. Supreme Court is no stranger to challenges to punitive damages awards, but it has never faced a challenge quite like the one it will decide this term.
In Philip Morris v. Williams, the justices, for the first time, will apply their “guideposts” for judging allegedly excessive punitive awards to a case involving the death of a plaintiff – a longtime smoker who died of lung cancer – rather than the usual property or contract dispute. The tobacco company defendant’s conduct in not telling the public about the health risks of smoking was described by a state supreme court as so egregious that the court twice allowed a punitive damages award nearly 100 times the amount of actual damages.
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