Billion-Dollar Tobacco Verdict Upheld at $56 Million After SJC Review
A Massachusetts jury returned a $1 billion punitive verdict against Philip Morris in 2022 over the lung cancer death of Barbara Fontaine, a case handled in part by Rubenstein Law attorney Kevin Donovan; the punitive award was later reduced to $56 million, a figure the state Supreme Judicial Court upheld in April 2026.
What happened
Barbara Fontaine smoked Philip Morris cigarettes for more than four decades before she died of lung cancer. Her husband Armand brought a wrongful death lawsuit against the tobacco company, arguing that Philip Morris had placed dangerous, addictive products on the market while concealing what it knew about the health consequences.
The case went to trial in Middlesex County Superior Court in Woburn, Massachusetts in September 2022. Over a 14-day proceeding, the plaintiffs' legal team presented evidence that Philip Morris had developed ultra-low nicotine alternatives internally but continued marketing conventional cigarettes instead, while publicly downplaying addiction and cancer risks. The company also faced claims of fraud and conspiracy in addition to negligent design and breach of warranty.
The jury found Philip Morris liable on all counts and returned a verdict of $8 million in compensatory damages plus $1 billion in punitive damages. CVN, which covered the trial live, ranked the result third on its list of the ten most impressive plaintiff verdicts of 2022. Kevin Donovan of Rubenstein Law served as co-counsel alongside lead attorney Randy Rosenblum of Dolan Dobrinsky Rosenblum Bluestein.
After the verdict, Superior Court Judge Shannon Frison applied the constitutional cap on punitive damages, reducing the punitive award to $56 million, seven times the compensatory figure. Philip Morris appealed, contending the jury had been 'swept away by passion and prejudice' and seeking a new trial.
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court rejected that argument in a unanimous April 2026 opinion authored by Justice Gabrielle Wolohojian. The court found 'virtually uncontested evidence showing Philip Morris's reprehensible conduct over decades,' including designing addictive products, targeting child audiences, and misleading the public about health dangers. The court noted that the jury's pointed questions and careful damage distinctions during deliberations contradicted any claim of bias. The $56 million judgment stands.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
- 1.CVN: Billion-Dollar Verdict Hits Philip Morris in Massachusetts Cancer Trial (2022)·Archived copy
- 2.CVN: Top 10 Most Impressive Plaintiff Verdicts of 2022 (#3)·Archived copy
- 3.Boston Globe: SJC upholds $56 million judgment against Philip Morris (April 2026)·Archived copy
- 4.Commonwealth Beacon: Record-smashing tobacco verdict doesn't warrant new trial, SJC rules·Archived copy
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Related wrongful death verdicts
In December 2011, a Fayette County, Texas jury awarded the family of an 8-year-old Splendora boy $150.37 billion after he was doused with gasoline and set on fire by a 13-year-old neighbor in 1998, two weeks after the same neighbor sexually assaulted him. The boy survived third-degree burns over 99 percent of his body for nearly 13 years before dying in April 2011 of a skin cancer linked to his injuries. The defendant, Don Wilburn Collins, never appeared to answer the civil suit, and the jury awarded $370 million in actual damages plus roughly $150 billion in punitive damages, the largest civil verdict in U.S. history. Attorney Craig Sico, who represented the family, said from the outset that the judgment was not collectible and was intended to pressure prosecutors into reopening the long-dormant criminal case. Prosecutors did reopen the case, and Collins was later convicted of capital murder in a separate criminal proceeding.
A Pensacola jury awarded Cynthia Robinson $23.6 billion in punitive damages against R.J. Reynolds over the 1996 lung cancer death of her 36-year-old husband, the largest single-plaintiff award of Florida's Engle tobacco litigation, but the trial judge called the number constitutionally excessive, an appeals court ordered a full retrial over improper closing arguments, and a second jury returned a complete defense verdict in 2019, so the estate ultimately collected nothing.
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