Ridiculous Lawsuit of the Week

There are a lot of ridiculous lawsuits out there so I can't say that this is the most ridiculous one this week. But it's up there. This suit was brought up in my Torts class--a woman sued Philip Morris for damages over her mother's death. Her mother, a lifelong smoker (of Marlboros and Benson & Hedges--yuck!), died of lung cancer. The plaintiff was awarded $13.8 million in punitive damages. The jury initially awarded $28 billion! (But the judge reduced it to $28 million.) After appeal and new trial over the damages, the amount was reduced to $13.8 million.

Even if we ignore for the moment the fact that there is no way to proof that the plaintiff's mother's lung cancer was caused by the Philip Morris cigarettes she smoked (the causation is probable, even likely, but it can't be proven--non-smokers can get lung cancer too), how can any reasonable jury find Philip Morris liable for something that the plaintiff's mother clearly chose to do? Is there no concept of personal responsibility left?

Now, don't get me wrong, I hate Philip Morris--I don't enjoy their cigarettes, and I despise them for their (underhanded and recently successful) lobbying effort to get Congress to ban flavored cigarettes. I have no sympathy for companies that use State force to eliminate competition. If Winston-Salem produces these nice and exotic flavored cigarettes, then the appropriate thing for Philip Morris to do is not to get Congress to ban flavored cigarettes but to either try to compete by coming up with their own flavored cigarettes or to just do nothing and stick to making their customer base happy. After all, there are people who only like the harsh taste of Marlboro reds.