Damages awarded

Philip Morris has been ordered to pay $10.5 million in damages to a former marine who lost his voice box to cancer from smoking cigarettes.

After deliberating for four days following a two-week trial, a Florida jury found that Philip Morris had misrepresented and obscured the health impacts and addictive nature of its cigarettes.

Plaintiff Edward Principe alleged that Philip Morris sold cigarettes containing a design defect and had hidden the truth about those cigarettes. Thus, he claimed the company was responsible for his laryngeal cancer.

The jury found that the cigarettes were not defective but that Philip Morris made statements misrepresenting cigarettes’ health impacts and addictive nature as well as statements hiding the facts. The company also made an agreement with other tobacco companies to make fraudulent statements, according to the jury.