Philip Morris Urges Supreme Court to Keep $10B Judgment Dead

Philip Morris USA has urged the U.S. Supreme Court not to review a nixed $10 billion trial court judgment over allegations its light and low-tar cigarettes are deceptively marketed.

The $10 billion judgment was rejected by Illinois Supreme Court Justice Lloyd A. Karmeier, whom the plaintiffs argue is biased because the parent company of Philip Morris allegedly ran ads in favor of the justice.

Philip Morris urged the U.S. Supreme Court to decline to review the plaintiffs’ appeal because there was no evidence to suggest their due process rights were violated when Karmeier was allowed to cast a deciding vote in the case.

“Instead, petitioners offer only rank speculation that PM USA secretly used other organizations to funnel money to the Karmeier campaign – conduct that would have been illegal under Illinois law,” Philip Morris claims. “Without a shred of evidence to support it, such an outlandish assertion cannot provide a basis for this court’s review.”

Philip Morris points to campaign records that show it made no contributions to Karmeier’s 2004 campaign. A Philip Morris affiliate contributed $20,000 to the campaign. Karmeier took office in late 2004.

In 2014, a different Philip Morris affiliate allegedly contributed more than $730,000 to the Republican State Leadership Committee, though it said the money should not be used in the judicial race. On the night of the 2014 election, Karmeier allegedly told a reporter that the attorney fee award in this light cigarette class action lawsuit was “distorting the system.”

“Any reasonable observer would interpret Justice Karmeier’s comments as indicating that he was biased against petitioners and their attorneys, and that he had already prejudged a pending case in favor of Philip Morris,” the plaintiff said in their petition to the U.S. Supreme Court. “This court’s precedents make clear that recusal is required either where a judge is actually biased or, under the objective circumstances, the probability of bias is too high to be constitutionally tolerable. Justice Karmeier’s statements criticizing the fee award at stake, disparaging petitioners’ attorneys and indicating an intent to vote against petitioners easily surpass that threshold.”

In December 2005, the Illinois Supreme Court reversed the $10 billion judgment that had been awarded in the light cigarettes class action lawsuit, finding that the Federal Trade Commission didn’t prohibit the use of “lights” as a descriptor. The judgment was reinstated in 2014, but last year the Illinois Supreme Court rejected the judgment again.

Plaintiff Sharon Price filed the class action lawsuit on behalf of all Illinois residents who purchased light cigarettes since 1971. The cigarette class action lawsuit accused Philip Morris of violating the Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act by advertising that its light cigarettes were healthier than regular cigarettes.

The plaintiffs are represented by Stephen M. Tillery of Korein Tillery LLC, and David C. Frederick and Jeremy S. Newman of Kellogg Huber Hansen Todd Evans & Figel PLLC.

The Philip Morris Cigarettes Class Action Lawsuit is Price, et al. v. Philip Morris Inc., Case No. 15-947, in the Supreme Court of the United States.