Bullock v. Philip Morris: Bleakley Closing Arguments, October 2, 2002
This is about Philip Morris and cigarettes and the tobacco industry; and instruction number (2) says the matter that you should take into account is the amount of punitive damages, if any, which will have a deterrent effect on the defendant. That's Philip Morris.
Now, what does that mean "a deterrent effect on Philip Morris"? That means an amount of punitive damages, if any, necessary to keep Philip Morris from doing again what you found to be wrongful in this case. And as Mr. Piuze has told you over and over again, this case was a fraud case.
So what I ask you to consider and what I suggest to you that you should be taking into account is what is the likelihood, if any, that Philip Morris ever again would be able to get away with defrauding the American public about the health risks of smoking? Is there any?
Is there any likelihood that that would happen again or that they would get away with it if they tried, when you consider the world in which we live today and in which cigarettes are marketed and sold today?
First, Philip Morris now acknowledges without reservation, without qualification, without any hesitation whatsoever that the overwhelming medical consensus, medical and scientific consensus in the world is that cigarette smoking causes disease and is addictive; without qualification.
Now, I'm not asking you to give Philip Morris any credit. I'm not asking for a pat on the back. That's not the point. The point is, it doesn't try today to tell people that smoking doesn't cause lung cancer and disease and that it isn't addictive. It doesn't try to do it and it hasn't tried to do it for some time; no doubt a lot longer than any of you on this jury believe is proper or appropriate.
But the fact of the matter is, publicly and unequalifiably -- remember during the course of the trial we showed you this exhibit, 7070. This is Philip Morris' website called "Health Issues for Smokers." A version of this website was put out by Philip Morris in 1999 before this lawsuit was filed.
The one that you saw before in this case and this one says, "We agree with the overwhelming medical and scientific consensus," the only difference between this one and the one that was put out in 1999 is the words "We agree," because there were people who thought they should say "We agree," not just that there is an overwhelming consensus.
Either way, the point is that this public acknowledgement that smoking causes lung cancer and is addictive is known all over the world. It was widely publicized. It was publicized here in Los Angeles in the L.A. Times and on television stations. It has been written about in newspapers and magazines. Mrs. Bullock knows about it.
It does not just, ladies and gentlemen, acknowledge that Philip Morris agrees that cigarette smoking causes lung cancer and other diseases and is addictive but provides convenient access, through links on its website, to a whole host of information from the public health community elaborating in much more detail the evidence and the views of the public health community. You can see that here.
Highlights from Surgeon General's reports going back several years, actual copy of one of the Surgeon General's reports, information from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, from the World Health Organization, and other public health officials.
I want to make the point again, ladies and gentlemen, I am not presenting this to you in any way in an attempt to claim credit. You found that Philip Morris should have done this a long time ago, and you are right; but the fact of the matter is they do today.
How do you think, even if they wanted to, they could ever take it back?