Smoker suit against US tobacco giant wafts toward US Supreme Court: lawyer

0 Comments | AFP, August, 2005

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) — Unsatisfied with legal rulings that spared it from paying billions of dollars in damages, Philip Morris wants the US Supreme Court to snuff out a lung cancer victim's civil suit, a lawyer said.

The international cigarette purveyor has asked a judge for permission to delay paying the dead smoker's wife until the nation's top court has a chance to review the civil suit.

Richard Boeken's civil trial with Philip Morris ended in 2001 with a jury awarding him 5.5 million dollars in compensation and three billion in punitive damages.

Boeken testified to smoking two packs of cigarettes daily since age 13 and blamed his lung cancer on the habit.

Jurors found Philip Morris guilty of negligence, fraud and selling a defective product....