Cigarette Maker to Pay Reduced Judgment to Cancer Victim

By Matt Green

Published on August 16, 2005

On Aug. 10, the California Supreme Court refused to hear a case brought by deceased Topanga resident Richard Boeken, allowing an appeals court decision to stand.

The 2nd District Court of Appeal in April reduced the damages in the civil trial to about $55 million. The California Supreme justices voted 5-0 against reviewing that ruling.

Boeken, a two-pack-a-day smoker since age 13, was diagnosed with cancer in 1999. Before his death in 2002 at age 57, he sued Philip Morris for $12 million in medical bills and compensation for his suffering.

In 2001, a Superior Court jury found Philip Morris guilty of negligence, misrepresentation, fraud and selling a defective product. It awarded Boeken $3 billion in punitive damages, which a judge later reduced to $100 million. The appellate panel further reduced that to $50 million.

During the trial, Boeken testified that he was the victim of a tobacco industry campaign that portrayed smoking as trendy but concealed its dangers.

In 1999 doctors told him he had lung cancer and little chance of survival. He quit smoking after lung surgery, undergoing extensive chemotherapy and racking up more than $12 million in medical bills.

Philip Morris officials said they would appeal the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.

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