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Justices decline to take up Philip Morris' appeal over size of punitive damages in lawsuit brought by Los Angeles smoker
Jump to full article: San Francisco Chronicle, 2006-03-21
Author: Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer
Intro: The court, without comment, declined to hear Philip Morris' appeal of $5.5 million in compensation and $50 million in punitive damages awarded to the widow of Richard Boeken of Los Angeles. . . .
After unsuccessfully seeking state Supreme Court review in the Boeken case, Philip Morris urged the nation's high court to take up the matter and clarify the punitive damage limits. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce supported the request.
The $50 million award for Boeken, more than nine times the jury's $5.5 million compensation verdict, disregarded the rules that the court set in 2003 for cases of substantial compensation, company lawyers argued. They said the courts were punishing Philip Morris for conduct that had nothing to do with Boeken. "The same constitutional violation recurs with great frequency in punitive damage cases throughout the country,'' they wrote. . . .
Michael Piuze, a lawyer for Judy Boeken, said the final amount of damages -- which he described as half of a week's earnings for Philip Morris -- wasn't enough to punish the company.
"Nor do I believe that it will adequately deter future wrongdoing by other giant corporations,'' he said.
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