Smoker's Award Cut From $28bn to $28m

A record verdict of punitive damages for an American smoker with lung and liver cancer who won her case against the tobacco giant Philip Morris has been slashed to $28m from the $28bn ordered by a jury.

Declaring October's award to 64-year-old Betty Bullock "legally excessive", the superior court judge Warren Ettinger in Los Angeles ruled that $28m (£17.5m) was "a reasonable sum to be awarded against Philip Morris in these circumstances".

The initial figure had marked the latest leap in so-called damages inflation, far exceeding the previous record of $3bn awarded by another Los Angeles jury last year to a smoker who later died. A judge eventually reduced it to $100m.

Although he reduced the award substantially, Judge Ettinger turned down Philip Morris's request for a new trial and was strongly critical of the tobacco company in his written ruling.

The judge wrote: "During the course of the trial, the plaintiff called world-famous experts who established that it had been known since the 1950s that cigarette smoke caused lung cancer; that nicotine was a highly addictive drug; and that executives of Philip Morris were aware of these facts.

"Philip Morris constantly lied to its customers. Their executives continued on a course claiming there was 'no certainty' that their product caused disease or was addictive."

William Ohlemeyer, Philip Morris's associate general counsel, said that the company would appeal.

"A critical element was what the plaintiff knew about the health risks of smoking... the evidence was clear that Mrs Bullock was aware of the risks and never relied, to her detriment, on anything the company said or did," he said.

The jury had also awarded her $750,000 for medical expenses and loss of earnings and $100,000 for pain and suffering.