A Massachusetts unanimous state Supreme Judicial Court ruling awarded $37 million to a plaintiff in a lawsuit against Philip Morris USA.
Issued Tuesday, the justices’ opinion found enough evidence to support a prior jury verdict and lower court judge’s rulings against the company in a case that claimed that the company’s cigarettes — and the company’s claims about them — resulted in the plaintiff’s cancer, reports WBUR.
In the high court opinion, written by Justice Scott Kafker, the justices found the company failed to disclose its own research to customers, which showed that filtered cigarettes were even more damaging to human DNA than regular cigarettes.
The opinion noted Philip Morris did not dispute that cigarettes are harmful to health. Instead, the company claimed there was no evidence linking its advertisements to Greene’s personal decision to take up Marlboro Lights as a safer alternative.