California jury tells Philip Morris to pay $13.8 million in punitive damages portion of lawsuit

LOS ANGELES -- A California jury decided yesterday that cigarette maker Philip Morris USA should pay $13.8 million in punitive damages to the daughter of a longtime smoker who died of lung cancer.

The Los Angeles County Superior Court jury voted 9-3 in favor of Jodie Bullock, who is now the plaintiff in the case filed by her mother eight years ago.

Betty Bullock of Newport Beach, who smoked Philip Morris-made Marlboro and Benson & Hedges cigarettes for 45 years, died of lung cancer in February 2003.

She had sued Philip Morris in April 2001, accusing the company of fraud and product liability. A jury in 2002 recommended Philip Morris pay a record $28 billion in punitive damages to Bullock, but a judge later reduced the award to $28 million.

Bullock's lawyer, Michael Piuze, asked jurors for another verdict awarding billions in punitive damages, saying anything less wouldn't punish the company. Philip Morris's parent company, Altria Corp., reported 2008 sales of $19.4 billion.

Betty Bullock, who was 64 at the time of the trial, began smoking Marlboros when she was 17. The former nurse claimed that Philip Morris's advertisements enticed her to start smoking and that the company misrepresented the risks when she could have quit with her health intact.

The punitive-damages award was first reduced to $28 million by the trial judge and then was thrown out entirely by an appeals court that ordered a new trial, saying a judge erred in refusing to accept a jury instruction proposed by the company.

The appeals judges rejected Philip Morris' request for a new trial on liability.

However, the original jury ordered the tobacco company to pay Bullock $750,000 in damages and $100,000 for pain and suffering, a verdict that still stands.

The Associated Press and Bloomberg News contributed to this report.