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DEFINITELY not a split on political lines when you have Stevens, Ginsberg, Scalia and Thomas on the same side 
Supreme Court Nixes Award Against Philip Morris
By Robert Barnes and Howard Schneider
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, February 20, 2007; 1:02 PM
The Supreme Court today threw out a nearly $80 million jury award against the Philip Morris tobacco company, a victory for it and other big businesses seeking limits on what juries may award to punish companies.
The court ruled 5-4 that the jury had not been properly instructed to consider how to award punitive damages in an Oregon case in which a smoker's widow had sued Philip Morris USA, now part of the Altria Group.
The jury awarded Mayola Williams $821,000 in compensation, then tacked on the punitive award in part to penalize the company for what was termed a "massive market-directed fraud" that convinced people smoking was not dangerous and did harm to many others.
But the court ruled that the constitution's due process clause forbids a state to use punitive damages to punish a company for injury that it inflicts upon others who are "essentially, strangers to the litigation," according to the majority opinion written by Justice Stephen G. Breyer.
Breyer said jurors may take into account that harm caused to others shows reprehensible conduct, but "a jury may go no further than this and use a punitive damages verdict to punish a defendant directly on account of harms it is alleged to have visited on nonparties."
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Breyer was joined by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Samuel A. Alito, Anthony Kennedy and David H. Souter. Besides Stevens, the dissenters were Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas.
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By Robert Barnes and Howard Schneider
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, February 20, 2007; 1:02 PM
The Supreme Court today threw out a nearly $80 million jury award against the Philip Morris tobacco company, a victory for it and other big businesses seeking limits on what juries may award to punish companies.
The court ruled 5-4 that the jury had not been properly instructed to consider how to award punitive damages in an Oregon case in which a smoker's widow had sued Philip Morris USA, now part of the Altria Group.
The jury awarded Mayola Williams $821,000 in compensation, then tacked on the punitive award in part to penalize the company for what was termed a "massive market-directed fraud" that convinced people smoking was not dangerous and did harm to many others.
But the court ruled that the constitution's due process clause forbids a state to use punitive damages to punish a company for injury that it inflicts upon others who are "essentially, strangers to the litigation," according to the majority opinion written by Justice Stephen G. Breyer.
Breyer said jurors may take into account that harm caused to others shows reprehensible conduct, but "a jury may go no further than this and use a punitive damages verdict to punish a defendant directly on account of harms it is alleged to have visited on nonparties."
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Breyer was joined by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Samuel A. Alito, Anthony Kennedy and David H. Souter. Besides Stevens, the dissenters were Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas.
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