Smokescreen

A Californian court has reduced the compensation liability of Philip Morris to a Marlboro smoker dying of lung cancer. The court has reduced the compensation from us $3 billion to us $100 million, on condition that Richard Boeken, the petitioner, accepts it.

In June 2001, a Los Angeles jury found Philip Morris liable of concealing the health dangers of cigarettes and awarded Boeken us $55.5 million in compensatory damages and us $3 billion in punitive damages. But the company officials alleged that the trial had improperly excluded evidence about Boeken's credibility. Therefore, they appealed for reducing the compensation amount. "The concern was that this would open the floodgates for other claims," said Bonnie Herzog, a tobacco industry analyst.