Punitive Award to Smoker’s Kin Stands; Calif. High Court Won’t Review Ratio

The California Supreme Court declined Nov. 30 to review a $13.8 million punitive damages award—16 times the compensatory award—in a long-running tobacco case (Bullock v. Philip Morris U.S.A. Inc., Cal., No. S196763).

Philip Morris U.S.A. Inc., the defendant in the case, had argued that the award conflicts with the U.S. Supreme Court’s holding in State Farm Mutual Automobile Ins. Co. v. Campbell, 538 U.S. 408 (2003), which generally limits punitive awards to less than 10 times the amount of compensatory damages. The plaintiff, the daughter of a deceased smoker, obtained an $850,000 compensatory award in a September 2002 ...