Court upholds smoker's award

PORTLAND — The Oregon Supreme Court for a third time has allowed a $79.5 million punitive-damages judgment against Philip Morris, an award twice struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court, which suggested it was excessive.

The money was for the family of a longtime Marlboro smoker, Jesse Williams, who started smoking during his 1950s Army hitch and died of lung cancer in 1997.

The Oregon court's decision on Thursday did not take issue with the U.S. Supreme Court's latest ruling, which said that when juries assess punitive damages, they can punish a defendant only for the harm done to the people suing.

But the Oregon court said jury instructions proposed by Philip Morris at the trial had other defects, so a judge's decision not to allow them was correct.

The instructions about punitive damages have been at the center of the legal battle over the suit brought by Williams' widow, Mayola. A Portland jury made the award in 1999.

The Oregon high court made its first decision in 2002, refusing to hear an appeal from Philip Morris. Then the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the judgment of nearly $80 million.

Next, the Oregon Supreme Court upheld the punitive damages, citing "reprehensible" conduct on the part of Philip Morris officials in marketing cigarettes.

The U.S. Supreme Court's second narrower ruling did not address the size of the award but only how juries could consider the conduct of defendants in determining punitive damages.