In 1996, Jesse Williams died of lung cancer. Mr. Williams smoked Marlboro cigarettes, manufactured by Philip Morris USA, for 47 years. His widow filed a negligence and deceit lawsuit against Philip Morris USA. The jury found that smoking caused Jesse Williams' death and that Philip Morris USA falsely and knowingly guided Mr. Williams towards the belief that smoking was physically safe. In 1999, Mr. Williams' widow was awarded $821, 000 in compensatory damages, and $79.5 million in punitive damages.
On October 31, 2006, the oral argument associated with the Philip Morris v. Williams case was presented to the Supreme Court on behalf of Philip Morris citing that the $79.5 million in punitive damages was excessive and that the jury may have been attempting to punish Philip Morris USA for injury to smokers other than Mr. Williams. The court overturned the $79.5 million award.
However, in 2007, the Oregon Court of Appeals restored the original $79.5 million dollar punitive damages award, rejecting Philip Morris USA's argument that the jury was not permitted to punish Philip Morris for harm incurred by others not before the court nor represented in this case.
The $79.5 million dollar punitive damages award set a new precedent in the ratio of punitive to compensatory damages awards, which in this case was 97 to 1. Prior to this case, the decision of the Supreme Court in the 2003 case of State Farm v. Campbell had placed a much smaller single digit ratio as the outer limit of constitutionality.
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