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Altria Must Pay $13.8 Million in Smoker Lawsuit, Jury Says  

Altria Group Inc., parent company of Philip Morris USA, the Marlboro cigarette maker, must pay $13.8 million in punitive damages to the daughter of a lifelong smoker who died of lung cancer in 2003, a jury found.

The verdict for Jodie Bullock, daughter of Betty Bullock, who smoked Marlboro and Benson & Hedges cigarettes for 45 years, was reached yesterday in Los Angeles. An earlier award of $28 billion from a 2002 trial had been first reduced by the trial judge and then canceled by an appeals court that ordered a new trial on punitive damages.

Bullock’s lawyer, Michael Piuze, told jurors Philip Morris misrepresented the risks of smoking for 50 years. He asked for “billions” in punitive damages, saying that anything less wouldn’t punish the company. Altria, the largest U.S. cigarette maker, reported 2008 sales of $19.4 billion.

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