Philip Morris loses $28B suit

CNN ^ | 10/4/02

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Philip Morris Cos., the No. 1 cigarette maker, was ordered Friday to pay a record $28 billion to a 64-year-old woman with lung cancer who blamed her tobacco addiction on the company's failure to warn her of the risks of smoking.

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

WIPE THE SMILE OFF OF THIS MAN’S FACE.
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[an opinion]

This would be an excellent district for reparation cases.

[SerpentDove]

OUTRAGEOUS

[Vidalia]

The jury consisted of Insane Clown Posse and Barbra Streisand's staff.

If only we could tell them apart...

[Just another Joe]

The jurors were idiots. The plaintiff is a whiner that doesn't want to take reponsibility for her actions. The company is really starting to tick me off.
What is there left to say?

[CIB-173RDABN]

It would have been cheaper in the long run if the Tobacco industry simply bribed (campaign donations) the Democrats.

[Jack Wilson]

what about the warning on every pack?

[goodnesswins]

What! In every language? Besides, what about the poor people who cannot read? /sarcasm

[kellynla]

Jury nullification. And I am surprised the judge allowed this judgment. Twenty eight BILLION DOLLARS? Whose life is worth 28 billion dollars? I lost a brother and father to cancer from cigarettes and like my brother told me before he died "nobody made me smoke!" I wonder how the company is supposed to stay in business and pay this judgment. What message is this court sending. People are so lame they don't have any free will? And this woman couldn't quit? Just an aside, I wonder if Bullock is one of the Bullocks who owned the department store chain here in CA(no longer in business). Just curious.

[hoosierham]

ALL these awards are TOTALLY asinine !

Nobody forced this woman or the others to begin and keep smoking.Every business is at risk of being sued out of existence if some whiner can find a dozen jurors who believe in "magic" money that somehow just appears out of thin air. The consumer and taxpayer is the one who pays for everything and it is terrible to reward some fool for poor choices at the expense of those who made good choices.

[NYCVirago]

"I think it will be reduced; $28 billion is a bit much," said Mary Aronson, a tobacco analyst at Aronson Washington Research.

Geez, ya think?

[MonroeDNA]

Trial lawyers have figured out how to manipulate the system.

They live in million-dollar mansions, with servants.

They love democrats.

In England, the court system has "loser pays" laws. If you sue somebody and lose, you pay for the defendant's court and legal fees.

28 BILLION!

How about ten trillion?

eleventy quadrillion?

[NYCVirago]

It would have been cheaper in the long run if the Tobacco industry simply bribed (campaign donations) the Democrats.

I wonder if that's why nobody seems to have gone after the alcohol industry. Plenty of people die from the effects of drinking, but I don't remember hearing about Anheuser-Busch or Gallo being sued.

[Aquinasfan]

So will they be able to sue the indians when they start rolling cigarettes on their reservations? Any lawyers out there?

I love the idea of mail-order indian reservation ciggies.

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

Just another $28,000,000,000.

[Just another Joe]

Just another $28,000,000,000.

I'd settle for 1% of that.

[Fraulein]

Bump

[SheLion]

Thanks for the ping, Fraulein!!! I appreciate it!!

[SheLion]

Just Another Joe said it all...........there is not much I can add, except "The World Has Gone Mad."