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(Reuters) - Massachusetts' top court on Wednesday ruled that the 1990s settlement between states and major tobacco companies did not bar the wife of a deceased smoker from recovering $10 million in punitive damages from Altria Group's Philip Morris USA Inc unit.
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court reached that conclusion as it upheld a jury's 2019 verdict awarding $21 million to the wife of a man who died of lung cancer after smoking the company's cigarettes much of his life.
The ruling deepened a divide in state appellate courts on the settlement's impact on residents' ability to seek punitive damages. Courts in at least two other states, New York and Georgia, have concluded the deal does bar punitive damages claims.
But Justice Dalila Wendlandt, writing for the 6-0 court, said those states' laws differed from Massachusetts' and that Pamela Laramie's interest in seeking punitive damages for the death of her husband Fred was not adequately represented by the state.
That's because her interest was not to punish the company generally for selling defective Marlboro cigarettes or in recovering for harms to the public at large but rather to punish Philip Morris for specifically harming Laramie, Wendlandt...
Read Full Story: https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/mass-top-court-upholds-21-mln-verdict-against-philip-morris-usa-2021-09-15/
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