JUDGE FINDS TOBACCO SETTLEMENT BARS CLAIMS FOR PUNITIVE DAMAGES
A federal judge has ruled that New York's participation in the
nationwide $208 billion settlement reached in 1998 between 46
states and the tobacco industry bars subsequent claims for
punitive damages in smokers' damage actions in New York.
Southern District of New York Judge Charles L. Brieant in
Mulholland v. Philip Morris, 05-9908, also rejected a
design-defect theory that led to a $20 million verdict against
two cigarette manufacturers in a separate 2005 state case. More
than $17 million of that verdict stemmed from an award of
punitive damages. . . .
In rejecting the Mulhollands' defective-design claim, Brieant
refused to accept a theory that was the sole basis for the $20.5
million award in 2005 against Philip Morris and the American
Tobacco Co., which has since merged with Brown & Williamson. An
appeal of the verdict in the New York County case of Rose v.
Philip Morris, 101996/02, is currently before the Appellate
Division, 1st Department.
Brieant rejected the defective-design claim, finding that there
was no feasible alternative to Marlboros because the other safer
alternatives that had been offered by the Mulhollands' expert had
been rejected by the marketplace.
The "reduced carcinogen" and "nonaddictive" cigarettes cited as
safer alternatives by the Mulhollands' expert were "indisputably
rejected by consumers," Brieant wrote.
