Philip Morris appeals against £70m damages
Philip Morris has appealed against a US court's decision to award £70.1m in damages to a smoker dying of lung cancer.
A California jury ruled against the company for fraud, negligence and making a defective product, firstly awarding record £2.1bn punitive damages in addition to £3.9m compensation to Richard Boeken, a securities and oil broker whose lung cancer has spread to his brain.
Mr Boeken agreed to the lower payout and Philip Morris says he has now cleared the way for the company to appeal against the entire verdict.
Superior Court Judge Charles McCoy said the original punitive damages order was too high, setting an unfair precedent for future claims.
Philip Morris still described the damages as grossly excessive.
Since the mid-1990s, there have been six similar cases in which individuals have won compensation from a tobacco company.
But only one has resulted in someone actually receiving the money. He was a 70-year-old ex-smoker, who received £772,000 from the Brown and Williamson tobacco company.
Philip Morris is also involved in the biggest such case brought by smokers against tobacco companies.
Last July, a jury in Florida returned an historic punitive damages award of £101.7bn in a class action lawsuit on behalf of all Florida's smokers.
The case is pending a review by the US Supreme Court.
