Fla. Jury Awards Smoker $21M From Philip Morris

By Jocelyn Allison

Law360, New York (July 09, 2010, 11:48 AM ET) -- A Florida jury has found Philip Morris USA partially responsible for a 64-year-old woman's chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and ordered the cigarette company to pay more than $21 million in damages.

In a verdict issued Thursday, a six-member jury in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., awarded plaintiff Ellen Tate $8 million in compensatory damages and more than $16 million in punitive damages, placing most of the blame on Philip Morris.

The jury found Tate, who began smoking at age 12 or 13, 36 percent responsible, and Philip Morris...
To view the full article, take a free trial now.

Already a subscriber? Click here to login

You must correct or enter the following before you can submit this form:

All fields required

  5. Required

Only Law360 gives you:

Non-stop coverage of high-stakes litigation across 30 practices

Real-time tracking and reports on 10,000+ companies, firms and industries

Over 80,000 attorney profiles with neutral data collected from active lawsuits

Research tools to find cases, court documents, attorneys and companies

Customized feeds and alerts that can easily be shared with colleagues

In-depth expert analysis from high-profile attorneys at top firms

Access to our vault with over 75,000 original articles