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The tobacco industry gained a win this week, when Philip Morris USA and other major industry companies won a lawsuit Friday filed by 37 Missouri hospitals seeking $455 million in reimbursements for treating sick Marlboro smoking patients without insurance.
The case, filed as City of St. Louis v. American Tobacco Co., involved six tobacco companies including Philip Morris USA. The hospitals involved claimed that cigarette companies were liable for the costs incurred to their consumers by delivering an “unreasonably dangerous product.” The patients involved had no health insurance and could not pay their bills, so the more than $455 million was swallowed by the hospitals.
Philip Morris USA expressed their satisfaction with the verdict.
“The jury agreed with Philip Morris USA that ordinary cigarettes are not negligently designed or defective,” Murray Garnick, Altria Client Services senior vice president and associate general counsel, said in a statement.
Lorillard Inc., another corporation involved in the case, said the strength of the tobacco industry’s case was the lack of financial injury suffered by the Missouri hospitals.
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