Philip Morris Wins in Replay of Cancer Trial
A Los Angeles jury handed a legal victory to Altria Group Inc.’s Philip Morris USA on Friday, ruling that the nation’s top cigarette maker was not responsible for the lung cancer death of a longtime smoker of its Marlboro and Benson & Hedges brands.
Jurors in Los Angeles County Superior Court found that Philip Morris had concealed information about the risks and addictiveness of smoking, with deliberate intent to defraud smokers such as Fredric Reller of Marina del Rey, who died in September 2003 at the age of 64. However, the jury also found that Reller was aware of the dangers and therefore had not been deceived.
The jury deliberated less than two days before reaching a verdict in what was a partial replay of a 2003 trial. In the earlier case, Philip Morris was absolved of five of six claims: negligence, failure to warn, marketing a defective product and two counts of fraud. The jury deadlocked on a claim of fraudulent concealment.
After Reller died, it became a wrongful-death case on behalf of his widow, Madeleine, and the concealment claim was retried beginning in January.
“Mrs. Reller and I are disappointed,” said her attorney, Michael Piuze, in a statement issued after the verdict.
In Fredric Reller’s videotaped deposition, “he admitted that he was ashamed and embarrassed that he had believed Philip Morris’ lies and deceit that there was no valid scientific proof that their cigarettes caused lung cancer,” Piuze said. “Philip Morris has never admitted any shame or embarrassment about its lies and deceit.”
William S. Ohlemeyer, vice president and associate general counsel at Altria, said the evidence showed that Reller “made an informed decision as to whether to smoke.”
Throughout the trial, Piuze had peppered the jury with internal documents dating to the 1960s, in which executives of Philip Morris and the Tobacco Institute spoke of creating “doubt about the health charge” so that addicted smokers would have a “psychological crutch” to rationalize their habit.
In closing arguments, he said Philip Morris’ defense boiled down to “saying Frederic Reller was wrong to believe what it said.”
But Philip Morris attorney Beth A. Wilkinson told jurors the deception claims were a smoke screen, because Reller “was an intelligent, sophisticated and successful businessman” who “was aware of the dangers.”
She cited testimony by Madeleine Reller about her husband’s reaction to a 1994 appearance before Congress of tobacco chief executives. When the CEOs stated under oath that they did not believe smoking was addictive or a proven cause of lung cancer, both Rellers “said they were liars,” Wilkinson said.
Opening arguments are set for Monday in Riverside in another case against Philip Morris -- this one filed by ex-Marlboro smoker Bruce Coolidge.
Altria’s shares closed Friday at $66.05, up 36 cents, on the New York Stock Exchange.
