Philip Morris: Tobacco Products

                         Philip Morris: Tobacco Products.

In 2002, Philip Morris faced charges in a suit filed by a woman ( Betty Bullock) who had lung cancer and claimed that smoking cigarettes had caused her sickness and that her tobacco addiction was caused by the tobacco company's failure to warn her of the risks of smoking.

Betty Bullock started smoking when she was 17. At 64 she is suffering from lung cancer that does not yield his progress and has already spread to the liver. She denounced Philip Morris arguing that she had always relied on the company when the publicly claimed that medical studies showed no real link between cancer and the consumption of the tobacco.

Bullock found the perfect lawyer to represent: Michael Piuze, specialized in dealing with tobacco. He had defended the smoker Richard Boeken in a similar process in June of the last year. On that occasion, the jury convicted Philip Morris to pay 3,000 million to Boeken

The company was ordered to pay punitive damages of a whopping $28 million  The jury had sentenced the company to pay another $ 850,000 as compensatory damages, but the amount climbed after a day and a half of deliberation. Philip Morris shares immediately plummeted to lose 7.37% and prompted a decline of 2.45% on Wall Street. Philip Morris company appealed the case and nine years later the amount was reduced to $28 million.