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Philip Morris Loses Bid to Overturn $10.5 Mln Award ($$) 

"At least with respect to people like Patricia Henley, who started smoking before any of the warning labels were on, when they were teenagers, the industry has real vulnerability," said Alan Morrison, one of Henley's attorneys.

The case once threatened New York-based Philip Morris with a $51.5 million verdict, handed down in 1999. A series of court rulings cut the punitive-damages part of the award from $50 million to $9 million, on top of $1.5 million in compensatory damages.

Altria shares fell $1.44 to $63.28 in New York Stock Exchange trading at 4:02 p.m. New York time.

"We're disappointed that the court didn't take the case, but it won't prevent us from successfully defending other cases," said William S. Ohlemeyer, Philip Morris USA associate general counsel.

The Henley case marks only the fourth time the industry has had to pay a verdict to an individual smoker, the second time for Philip Morris, according to Edward L. Sweda, Jr., a lawyer at the anti-smoking Tobacco Products Liability Project in Boston.

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