on Mar 21st, 2006Life Insurance, Cigarettes, and the Big Bad Wolf
Were you ever afraid of the big bad wolf? If you lived in the city, I doubt it. The notion of a wolf walking down the street probably seemed ridiculous…until you visited your local gas station for another pack of cigarettes. You see, the big bad wolf was cloaking himself in the guise of a tobacco company. Like Little Red Riding Hood, you fell for his wily ways and wound up with lung cancer.
In a landmark case, a widow finally gets to collect $82 million for the loss of her husband to smoking. Does that sound like a lot of money? Astoundingly, the jury originally awarded her $3 billion PLUS compensatory damages!!!
Well, I guess the silver lining is: it sure beats a life insurance policy.
Five years after a landmark defeat in a Los Angeles courtroom, tobacco giant Philip Morris USA has exhausted its appeals and will have to pay record damages of more than $82 million to the widow of a longtime smoker of its Marlboro cigarettes.
Still, the award is a wisp of its original self. Outraged jurors in Los Angeles County Superior Court had ordered Philip Morris to pay Boeken $3 billion in addition to compensatory damages in June 2001 after finding the company guilty of fraud, negligence, misrepresentation and selling a defective product.
Widow’s Legal Battle With Philip Morris Ends
By Myron Levin, Los AngelesTimes Staff Writer
March 21, 2006