Philip Morris Wins and Loses

Robert Ambrogi reports in Law.com's Legal Blog Watch on two big cases for Philip Morris. The Oregon Court of Appeals vacated a huge punitive damages award (good news for the company) and the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court held that a tobacco company could not shield itself from liability by saying that the plaintiff used it "unreasonably" (bad news for the company).

This isn't a tobacco blog, but tobacco cases often raise important trial practice issues -- the Reynolds attorneys' use of motions in limine a couple of weeks ago, the propriety of punitive damages, available defenses in product liability cases, and so on. Stay tuned, there might be more -- even though no smoking is allowed in University buildings (WAC 478-136-030(12)) -- or, now, any public buildings (RCW 70.160).

Filed in: tobacco, punitive-damages, product-liability, UW