Without comment, in a one-sentence ruling, the Supreme Court has let stand, finally, a nine-year old lawsuit verdict against tobacco giant Altria, formerly known as Philip Morris. Essentially, though actually making a statement, albeit terse in extremis, SCOTUS declined to hear the case.
With interest, between actual damages, punitive damages to smoking widow Mayola Williams, and an override/cap on that, which will go to the state of Oregon’s crime victims fund, Philip Morris needs to dig in its wallet for about $150 mil, with the clock having been ticking on nine years of interest, though it says it will still appeal the amount due to the state.
Sidebar: The Oregon idea should be adopted by ALL states. It would be much more productive to society than either capping punitive damages OR letting them stand, but all punitive damages actually going to the plaintiff. Damages above 3x or 5x of actual, send them to the state crime victim fund, in part….
And, in part, to state legal aid.
No comments:
Post a Comment