California Jury Returns $1.5 Million Verdict Against Big Tobacco, Takes Up Punitive Damages.

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 10, 1999--After dealing a $1.5 million blow to the tobacco industry yesterday, a jury returns to court today to decide how much to punish Philip Morris Inc. for maliciously defrauding the public about the dangers of cigarette smoking.

A San Francisco Superior Court jury yesterday voted unanimously that Philip Morris conspired with other tobacco companies to conceal or misrepresent the health effects of cigarette smoking in order to defraud the public and the plaintiff, Patricia Henley.

The jury returns at noon in the court of Judge John Munter to hear brief arguments in the punitive damage phase of the trial. The jury yesterday afternoon voted unanimously to award Henley $1.5 million for compensatory damages, including her pain and suffering and medical care.

In her four-week trial, Henley's attorney, Madelyn Chaber, charged that the tobacco companies knew since 1946 that smoking cigarettes caused cancer yet pursued a campaign of disinformation and concealment, boosted nicotine levels, and targeted youth to maintain a steady market of hooked smokers. Chaber is a partner in the San Francisco firm Wartnick, Chaber, Harowitz, Smith & Tigerman.

The jury rejected arguments by Philip Morris that Henley should have known about the dangers of smoking and that it was Henley's choice not to quit.

The jury voted unanimously that Philip Morris concealed a material fact from Henley with the intent of defrauding her. The jury also found unanimously that Henley would not have acted as she did, by continuing to smoke, if she had known about the hazards of smoking.

Henley took a puff of her first Marlboro at age 15 during a high school dance. Her addiction grew until she reached two packs of cigarettes a day. When she turned 43, she switched to Marlboro lights and other low tar cigarettes believing they were safer. Instead, her consumption swelled to three packs a day.

After unsuccessful attempts to quit smoking, Henley was diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer in January 1998. Born on Nov. 10, 1946, Henley grew up in San Francisco but has lived for more than 20 years in Los Angeles.

The verdict in Henley's case is the first since a 1987 ban on product liability suits against the cigarette industry was lifted to allow suits in January 1998.