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Supreme Court to revisit issue of appropriate punitive awards; Tort reform backers hope for more clarity.
Business Insurance, June, 2006 by Hofmann, Mark A.
Byline: MARK A. HOFMANN WASHINGTON-Tort reform advocates hope that the Supreme Court will use an Oregon case to clarify further when a punitive damage award is so disproportionate to underlying compensatory damages as to become unconstitutional. The case, Philip Morris vs. Mayola Williams, stems from a Feb.
2 Oregon Supreme Court decision that upheld the award of $79.5 million in punitive damages to the widow of a smoker who had died of lung cancer in 1997. Mayola Williams' husband, Jesse, had been a three-pack-a-day smoker. Ms. Williams sued Philip Morris, now part of Altria Group Inc., for alleged fraud and ultimately received an award of $521,000 in compensatory damages and $79.5 million in punitive damages. The U.S. Supreme Court sent the matter...
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