PARAGON07 <r...@n...o2.pl> wrote in news:Xns978DC6E24C1DFPARAGON07
@193.110.122.97:

> the creator <c...@a...net> wrote in news:unXTf.2909$yo1.1797@trndny09:
>
>> Wczoraj Sad Najwyzszy USA odmowil rozpatrzenia apelacji Philip Morris
>> od wyroku Sad Najwyzszego Kalifornii w sprawie spowodowania raka pluc
>> Richarda Boekena. Oznacza to ze pozostaje w mocy wyrok nakazujacy
>> wyplacenie odszkodowania.
>>
>> Piec lat temu lawa wybrana przez Philip Morris wydala wyrok nakazujacy
>> zaplacenie pol miliona dolarow odszkodowania ofiarze raka pluc oraz
>> dodadkowo nawiazke w wysokosci 3 miliardow dolarow. Sedzia zredukowal
>> nawiazke do 100 milionow a sad apelacyjny do 50 milionow.
>> Philip Morris musi teraz wyplacic zasadzona kwote plus odsetki
>> wynoszace
>> polowe tek kwoty. Dodatkowo, koszta adwokata.
>>
>> Richard Boeken nie zobaczy ani centa z tych pieniedzy. Zmarl wkrotce
>> po pierwszym wyroku.
>>
>> http://www.supremecourtus.gov/docket/05-600.htm
>>
>>
>> Dzisiejszy The Los Angeles Times:
>>
>> Widow's Legal Battle With Philip Morris Ends
>> By Myron Levin, Times Staff Writer
>> March 21, 2006
>>
>> Five years after a landmark defeat in a Los Angeles courtroom, tobacco
>> giant Philip Morris USA has exhausted its appeals and will have to pay
>> record damages of more than $82 million to the widow of a longtime
>> smoker of its Marlboro cigarettes.
>>
>> Without comment, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to review a
>> 2001 verdict in the case filed by Richard Boeken of Topanga. Boeken,
>> who began smoking in his teens, died of cancer at 57, shortly after
>> the verdict in the first suit by an individual smoker ever tried in
>> Los Angeles.
>>
>> ADVERTISEMENT
>> Although cigarette makers have agreed to some major settlements,
>> including $246 billion to end lawsuits by the states, in more than 50
>> years of litigation, they have had to write checks to only a handful
>> of individual smokers.
>>
>> The Boeken award — consisting of $5.54 million in compensatory
>> damages, $50 million in punitive damages and more than $26 million in
>> interest — will be the largest recovery by an individual to date.
>>
>> It will eclipse the previous record payment of $16.7 million last year
>> to a former smoker from Glendale. Philip Morris, a unit of Altria
>> Group Inc. and the top U.S. cigarette maker, lost that case too.
>>
>> Boeken's widow, Judy Boeken, could not be reached for comment. But her
>> lawyer, Michael Piuze of Los Angeles, said she "is happy that the
>> litigation's over."
>>
>> Ed Sweda, senior attorney for the Boston-based Tobacco Products
>> Liability Project, which encourages lawsuits against the tobacco
>> industry, said the Supreme Court's decision not to accept the appeal
>> "demonstrates that tobacco litigation remains a viable — and still
>> emerging — strategy to promote the public health."
>>
>> Still, the award is a wisp of its original self. Outraged jurors in
>> Los Angeles County Superior Court had ordered Philip Morris to pay
>> Boeken $3 billion in addition to compensatory damages in June 2001
>> after finding the company guilty of fraud, negligence,
>> misrepresentation and selling a defective product.
>>
>> Weeks later, the trial judge sliced the punitive award to $100
>> million. A California appeals court then trimmed it to $50 million,
>> despite its finding that Philip Morris' conduct was "extremely
>> reprehensible."
>>
>> "The very conduct that injured Boeken was directed at all smokers in
>> the United States, repeated over many years with knowledge of the risk
>> to human life and health," and demonstrated "intentional deceit," the
>> state appeals court ruled last year.
>>
>> But the panel also cited a 2003 U.S. Supreme Court opinion that
>> punitive damages usually should not exceed nine times the compensatory
>> damages. That ratio was reflected in the state appeals court ruling.
>>
>> Piuze had argued that the ratio was a guideline, not a rule, and
>> should not protect a company that he said was responsible for millions
>> of deaths.
>>
>> Although the court's decision Monday was a victory for the plaintiff,
>> Piuze said he was not satisfied "with the end result, which is a
>> penalty of one half week of earnings" for Philip Morris.
>>
>> Steven Rissman, associate general counsel for Altria Corporate
>> Services Inc., another unit of Altria, said Monday that he was not
>> surprised the Supreme Court declined to review the case. "You can
>> never have the highest of expectations when you're talking about a
>> court that accepts less than 100 of the 7,000 petitions that it's
>> presented each year."
>>
>> Legal analysts believe that the court may be more likely to consider
>> an appeal of another verdict that went well beyond the 9-to-1
>> guideline.
>>
>> It's an Oregon case in which the $80-million award against Philip
>> Morris includes $79.5 million in punitive damages and $521,000 in
>> compensatory damages — a ratio of more than 152 to 1.
>>
>> The Oregon Supreme Court affirmed the verdict last month, setting the
>> stage for a last-ditch appeal to the nation's highest court.
>>
>> The Boeken verdict was among a string of four straight big defeats for
>> cigarette makers in Los Angeles and San Francisco superior courts.
>>
>> Rissman noted that since the last of these plaintiffs' victories in
>> 2002, Philip Morris has successfully defended five consecutive
>> individual smoker cases in California.
>>
>> Altria shares rose 4 cents Monday to $73.59.
>>
>
> Dzien dobry Panie Jurku, mnie tez to nie martwi i tak te szumowiny za
> dlugo siedza na tych stolkach.

Przepraszam to zdanie do postu ponizej.