United States | Tobacco and the courts

Butt surely not $3 billion?

A California jury has punished the firm that sold a cancer sufferer his poison

Jun 7th 2001|LOS ANGELES

ONE reason that Angelenos like the privacy of their cars is that they can smoke in them without the sanctimonious disapproval of their neighbours. The tellings off which smokers must endure in California are as nothing, however, compared with the punishment just dished out in Los Angeles to Philip Morris. On June 6th a jury in the LA County Superior Court ordered America's largest tobacco firm to pay $5.5m in compensation to Richard Boeken, a smoker with cancer—oh, and a cool $3 billion in punitive damages.

This article appeared in the United States section of the print edition under the headline “Butt surely not $3 billion?”