Tobacco Makers’ Changes Mitigate Against Punitives in Lung Cancer Suit, Says Defense 

Kenneth Reilly tells jurors that changes in the tobacco industry, including federal regulation and wholesale changes in company leadership, mitigate against imposing punitive damages in Rose Pollari’s suit claiming the concealment of smoking’s health hazards by R.J. Reynolds and Reilly’s client, Philip Morris, led to her husband Paul’s fatal lung cancer.  Jurors awarded Pollari $10 million in compensatory damages in the trial’s first phase.