Credit: doganmesut – stock.adobe.com. Philip Morris International is the manufacturer of Marlboro Cigarettes. 12% Post-Judgment Interest Is Constitutional: State High Court Upholds $37M Judgments Against Philip Morris
"Given Philip Morris's research regarding compensation and mutagenicity, the jury could find that these representations were knowingly false. Greene testified that she received these false messages, that she believed them, and that she switched to Marlboro Lights because of this belief. Particularly against the backdrop of her exposure to the conspiracy's broader disinformation campaign, a reasonable jury could conclude that Greene was exposed to the fraud and deception in the particular marketing and messaging regarding filtered cigarettes and that she relied on it to justify her continuing to smoke Marlboro Lights," Justice Scott L. Kafker wrote.
May 11, 2023 at 01:55 PM
7 minute read
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court this week upheld rulings against Philip Morris, finding that the evidence at trial supported a jury's finding of liability on claims alleging civil conspiracy and maintained a 12% post-judgment interest rate that could add up quick on an award already totaling more than $37 million against the Big Tobacco company.
The plaintiff, Patricia Walsh Greene, sued Philip Morris USA after she developed lung cancer after smoking Malboro brand cigarettes for decades. Greene grew up surrounded by Malboro advertising and promotions and smoked her first Malboro cigarette in 1971. She received several small packs of cigarettes as free samples as a teenager, and by the time she was in high school, she smoked a pack of cigarettes a day.
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