The Oregon Supreme Court on Thursday affirmed a US$ 79.5 million punitive damage jury verdict against cigarette maker Philip Morris USA in a lawsuit filed by the widow of a smoker.

Philip Morris, a unit of Altria Group, said it again plans to seek review of the case by the US Supreme Court, which had previously set aside the damage award.
The company contends that award of 152 times the compensatory judgment to the widow of smoker Jesse Williams is "grossly excessive".
It said the award conflicts with a 2003 US Supreme Court decision involving State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. That decision found that punitive damages generally should not exceed the amount of compensatory damages in cases with substantial actual or compensatory damages.
The suit was brought on behalf of the family of Jesse Williams, a smoker who died of cancer. A jury awarded US$ 821,000 in compensatory damages in 1999, which was reduced under state law to US$ 521,000. The trial court reduced the punitive damages award to US$ 32 million, but the Oregon Court of Appeals reinstated the original US$ 79.5 million punitive award in June 2002.
In 2003, the US Supreme Court granted review of the case, directed the Oregon Court of Appeals to vacate its June 2002 opinion and ordered it to reconsider the case in view of the State Farm decision. The appeals court again found in favour of the plaintiff and the Oregon Supreme Court again backed that ruling, saying Philip Morris and other companies had engaged in a decades-long scheme to deceive smokers even when they knew cigarettes were dangerous.
"Under such extreme and outrageous circumstances, we conclude that the jury's US$ 79.5 million punitive damage award against Philip Morris comported with due process, as we understand that standard to relate to punitive damage awards," the Oregon Supreme Court said in a written opinion filed on Thursday. (pi)