Supreme Court refuses to intervene in tobacco lawsuit
03/20/06
(Supreme Court-AP) March 20, 2006 - The Supreme Court has refused a request from Philip Morris to review a $50 million smoking judgment.
The titan tobacco company wanted justices to intervene in a case involving a two-pack-a-day smoker who died of cancer. Philip Morris USA asked for a shield against some of the smoker's claims, and for a formula for deciding punitive damages in similar cases.
The high court declined without comment.
Richard Boeken initially won three billion dollars in punitive damages before his death in 2002. A California jury had found Philip Morris guilty of negligence, misrepresentation, fraud and selling a defective product.
The damage award was reduced to a hundred million, and then cut in half by an appeals court.