Oregon’s High Court Re-Reaffirms $79M Philip Morris Verdict

For the third time, Oregon's high court has upheld a $79.5 million punitive-damages verdict against Philip Morris after the case was twice kicked back to them from the U.S. Supreme Court.

Central to arguments in the case are jury instructions. The Oregon court has ruled that jury instructions proposed by Philip Morris, which the trial judge disallowed, suffered defects, the Associated Press reports.

A Portland jury first awarded the damages in 1999 to the widow of a longtime cigarette smoker, Jesse Williams, who died in 1997. The actual damages amounted to $521,000, making the punitives about 150 times greater. The high court kicked it back down, first suggesting that punitives not be more than nine times actual economic damages.

On the second round, the Supreme Court, in a 5-4 ruling (PDF) last February, issued a narrower ruling that didn't take on the size of the award, but addressed how juries could consider the conduct of defendants in determining punitive damages, How Appealing explaines in a detailed analysis of the case.