RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Oregon’s state Supreme Court is ordering Philip Morris USA Inc. to pay the state more than half of a $79.5 million jury award in a case brought by a smoker’s widow.
The cigarette maker’s parent company, Altria Group Inc., said Friday that it will lower its full-year earnings expectations based on the costs tied to the payments for this and another case by a former smoker.
A jury awarded the $79.5 million payment in 1999.
Oregon law provides the state is entitled to 60 percent of any punitive damages award, but Phillip Morris had argued that the state released its right to collect that money with the company’s master settlement agreement in 1998 with 46 states, five U.S. territories and the District of Columbia over claims about smoking.
