The US Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case Phillip Morris USA v. Williams. This case comes out of Oregon and involves a compensatory damage award of $821,485.50 and a punitive damage award of $79.5 million.
The punitive damage award was calculated on two and one-half weeks of profit for Phillip Morris and was upheld three times as it worked its way up the Oregon court system.
The Supreme Court agreed to hear two issues:
(1) whether the United States Constitution bars a jury from punishing a company for the effects of its misconduct on other state residents not directly before the court; and
(2) whether the reprehensibility of a company’s misconduct can override the notion that punitive damages generally should be proportionate to the actual harm done.
