“retributive Damages” and the Death of Private Ordering

Mayola Williams sued Philip Morris, the manufacturer of Marlboros, for the wrongful death (from lung cancer) of her husband Jesse, who had been a lifelong Marlboro smoker. Despite warnings from the federal government, family, and many others, Jesse Williams had smoked because he allegedly believed Philip Morris’s claims that smoking had not been proven to be dangerous. An Oregon jury awarded Ms. Williams $821,000 in compensatory damages (reduced to $521,000 because of a cap on pain and suffering) and $79.5 million in punitive damages (of which sixty percent was diverted to the Oregon government). The punitive award was upheld by Oregon’s appellate courts and was reaffirmed on remand after the United States Supreme Court ordered it to be reconsidered in light of the Court’s ruling in State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. v. Campbell. The Oregon