SJC orders Philip Morris to pay woman $37m in cancer lawsuit

The state’s highest court has ordered Philip Morris USA to pay a Newton woman who developed brain cancer from smoking Marlboro Lights cigarettes $37 million, ruling she fell victim to the tobacco company’s “smoke screen” that falsely claimed the brand was safer than Marlboro Red.

In a unanimous decision Tuesday, the Supreme Judicial Court said Patricia Walsh Greene and her expert witnesses had proven during a jury trial that she might have stopped smoking sooner, or altogether, if Philip Morris had not designed an advertising campaign extolling the health benefits of the Lights relative to Marlboro Red.

“Philip Morris represented that such products, including Marlboro Lights, delivered lower tar and nicotine and were a healthier alternative to regular cigarettes,” Justice Scott P. Kafker wrote for the court. “Philip Morris never disclosed to its consumers that internal research it conducted in the late 1970s showed that the smoke of its filtered cigarette products, such as Marlboro Lights, was more [cancer-causing] than the smoke from its regular cigarettes.”

Greene was thrilled by the legal victory, said her lawyer, Meredith K. Lever of the Public Health Advocacy Institute in Boston. The institute was cofounded by Northeastern University Law professor Richard Daynard, who battled tobacco companies for decades.

“She’s very, very happy,’' Lever said. “It’s been a long road.”

Philip Morris USA couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.

Greene started smoking Marlboro Red cigarettes in 1971 when she was 13 and by high school was consuming a pack a day, according to the decision.

She quit between 1979 and 1980 but began smoking again and switched to Marlboro Lights, believing it had “less of the bad stuff,” she testified, according to the decision.

Greene finally quit smoking in 1995 after a health scare but in 2013 was diagnosed with lung cancer that developed into brain cancer that required multiple surgeries and radiation treatment, according to court records. She suffered permanent kidney damage from chemotherapy and is ineligible for a transplant because her cancer could recur, the court wrote.

“Philip Morris does not dispute the evidence of medical causation, i.e., that smoking causes the type of cancer from which Greene suffered,” Kafker wrote. “A reasonable jury could conclude that Greene was exposed to the fraud and deception in the particular marketing and messaging regarding filtered cigarettes and that she relied on it to justify her continuing to smoke Marlboro Lights.”

After a four-week trial in Middlesex Superior Court, the jury concluded Philip Morris had engaged in a civil conspiracy with other tobacco companies that dated back to the 1950s, when top executives agreed to launch a marketing campaign falsely claiming cigarette smoking was not harmful, according to the SJC.

The jury awarded Greene $6.5 million for past and future pain and suffering and $2.6 million for medical costs. They also awarded Greene’s husband, Frederick Douglas Greene, $500,000 for the loss of consortium. He has since died, according to court records.

After the verdict, Superior Court Judge Helene Kazanjian ruled that Philip Morris USA had also violated the state’s consumer protection law. As allowed under the law, the judge tripled the original verdict and added $2.3 million in legal fees and costs, raising the total to $27.5 million.

That award was backdated to 2015. With 12 percent interest, the amount has risen to about $37 million, according to court records.

‘Philip Morris represented that such products, including Marlboro Lights, delivered lower tar and nicotine and were a healthier alternative to regular cigarettes.’

JUSTICE SCOTT P. KAFKER, in the SJC’s ruling