New York: Jury rules for Philip Morris

BOSTON, MA -- A federal jury has ruled in favor of Philip Morris in a suit brought by a smoker alleging that the tobacco company's cigarettes caused her lung cancer. Ann Grill was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2003 and filed suit in 2005, but she passed away before the trial started. Her husband and four children sought $340 million in damages. But after a three-week trial in federal court in New York, a nine person jury unanimously ruled for the defense. "Today's defense verdict marks the first new individual smoking and health case tried by Philip Morris in five years anywhere in the country outside of the Engle cases in Florida," Murray Garnick, Altria Client Services senior vice president and associate general counsel, said in a statement. "We believe the jury's verdict shows that Philip Morris continues to have strong defenses to these types of lawsuits." A call requesting comment from Grill's attorney, Jerome Block of Levy Phillips Konigsberg in New York City, was not returned. Philip Morris achieved another defense verdict recently, in a suit brought against it and five other tobacco defendants by 37 Missouri hospitals seeking $455 million in reimbursement for treating sick smokers. The plaintiffs, who argued the tobacco companies created an "unreasonably dangerous" product, had sought payment for smokers who had no insurance and did not pay their bills dating back to 1993. Philip Morris has had mixed results lately in the Florida Engle litigation, where individual trials are held to determine if the plaintiff was addicted to cigarettes and whether that addiction caused his or her injury. If the jury answers in the affirmative, it considers a punitive award after being presented with findings that the tobacco companies were negligent, that cigarettes are defective, unreasonably dangerous and addictive, and that the tobacco companies conspired to conceal health and addiction information with the intention of consumer reliance on the misinformation. After a defense verdict in April, a jury awarded $40 million against Philip Morris and R.J. Reynolds to the widower of a smoker who died of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Out of 46 trials to date, the plaintiffs have won 33, with mistrials and defense verdicts in the other cases. Published: Mon, May 30, 2011