Supreme Court grants cert in Williams v. Philip Morris (again)

The Supreme Court today granted certiorari to hear another appeal concerning punitive damages in Williams v. Philip Morris, this time to decide whether the Oregon courts complied with the U.S. Supreme Court's earlier ruling in the case.  Here's a link to the Oregon Supreme Court opinion in question, and an excerpt from the NY Times article by David Stout: 

The United States Supreme Court will review a $79.5 million punitive-damages award against Philip Morris in the latest back-and-forth between the justices and the high court of Oregon. The last time the case was before the United States Supreme Court, the justices overturned the award by an Oregon jury on the ground that jurors might have improperly calculated the monetary figure to punish the cigarette maker, by weighing the harm the company caused to smokers other than Mr. Williams.

That ruling, on Feb. 20, 2007, sent the case back to the Oregon Supreme Court, which concluded in January that the award against Philip Morris could stand because the United States Supreme Court had acknowledged that harm to people not involved in the lawsuit could still play a role in the punitive-damages calculation “in the sense that it is relevant to showing the degree of reprehensibility of a defendant’s conduct.”

In announcing on Monday that it would look at the Williams case once again, the United States Supreme Court said it would not consider whether the amount of the judgment was constitutionally permissible. Rather, it would decide if the Oregon court’s January action was taken in defiance of the February 2007 ruling.

For earlier accounts of the Williams case on this blog, see here (on the Supreme Court's opinion and a related editorial), here (on a subsequent law review symposium), and for earlier accounts with links to articles, audio, and more, see here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

HME