Jury Finds Philip Morris Not Liable in Death

Philip Morris Cos. and other cigarette makers were not responsible for the cancer death of a Brooklyn, N.Y., woman who smoked for 32 years, a New York state court jury determined. The panel had previously decided that smoking caused the lung cancer that killed Bonnie Apostolou, who died in 1996 at the age of 45. But jurors concluded that she had “expressly assumed the risk” of smoking, and rejected all claims against the tobacco companies. The verdict “builds on what has become a pretty solid record” for cigarette makers in defending claims brought by individual smokers, said Marc I. Cohen, an analyst at Goldman, Sachs & Co. The Apostolou verdict was the ninth win for the industry in the last 12 individual smokers’ cases to come to trial since cigarette makers agreed in 1998 to pay $246 billion to settle the states’ smoking-related health claims. Philip Morris shares rose 31 cents to close at $42.56 on the New York Stock Exchange.