PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - The Oregon Supreme Court for a third time has
allowed a $79.5 million punitive-damages judgment against Philip Morris, an
award twice struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court, which suggested it was
excessive.
The award was for the family of Jesse Williams, a former Portland janitor
who started smoking during a 1950s Army hitch and died in 1997 six months after
he was diagnosed with lung cancer. A jury in Portland made the award in 1999.
The Oregon Supreme Court said in Thursday's ruling that Philip Morris and
the tobacco industry worked during the 1950s on a "program of disinformation" to
create doubt about the dangers of smoking. Williams "learned from watching
television that smoking did not cause lung cancer," but, once he came down with
it, said the "cigarette people" had lied to him.
Thursday's ruling followed a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court last year to
send the case back to Oregon.
The state Supreme Court was told to reconsider the award based on its
decision about instructions for the trial jury that Philip Morris had proposed
and the trial judge rejected.
The Oregon high court on Thursday said there were other defects in the
instructions, violating Oregon law, that justified the trial judge's decision.
The Oregon court said that, for example, the instructions Philip Morris
suggested would have forbidden the jury to consider the profits the tobacco
company made through misconduct that was not illegal.
The Oregon Supreme court decision Thursday didn't take issue with the U.S.
Supreme Court on another point it raised -- that Oregon courts couldn't allow
jurors to use punitive damages to punish a defendant for harm done to anybody
who wasn't part of the suit.
The instructions about punitive damages have been at the center of the legal
battle over the suit brought by Williams' widow, Mayola.
Philip Morris will appeal Thursday's ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court, the
tobacco maker said. Business groups have watched the case closely as a precedent
setter for large jury awards in product liability suits.
The Oregon high court made its first decision in 2002, refusing to hear an
appeal from Philip Morris.
Then the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the judgment of nearly $80 million,
saying that punitive damages generally should be held to no more than nine times
actual economic damages. It declined, however, to make that a firm rule.
In the Williams case, the family was awarded $521,000 in actual damages. The
punitive damages are about 150 times greater.
Next, the Oregon Supreme Court upheld the punitive damages, citing
"extraordinarily reprehensible" conduct on the part of Philip Morris officials.
Then came the U.S. Supreme Court's second take on the case, last year, a
narrower ruling that did not address the size of the award but only how juries
could consider the conduct of defendants in determining punitive damages.
Philip Morris, a unit of Altria Group, called Thursday's decision
inexplicable.
"The U.S. Supreme Court did not take the time and effort to consider this
case and remanded it to the Oregon Supreme Court in order for that court to
reach the same erroneous decision," said William Ohlemeyer, vice president and
associate general counsel for Philip Morris USA.
A lawyer on the family's side, James Coon of Portland, said the Oregon court
was right to focus on whether the jury instructions were correct under Oregon
law. It is a threshold question that has to be answered before the courts
consider whether the damages are unconstitutionally large.
The family released a statement hailing the decision. Should the Williams
suit prevail, Oregon law requires that 60 percent of the punitive damage award
go to a statewide fund to assist crime victims.
Edward Sweda Jr. of the Tobacco Products Liability Project at Northeastern
University School of Law in Boston said it's possible the U.S. Supreme Court
won't reconsider the size of the award.
Associated Press Writer Sarah Skidmore contributed to this report.
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