Court upholds $37M payout for woman who smoked Marlboro Lights, got cancer

On Monday, June 28, 2004, New York State will be the first state that requires tobacco companies to sell the new “fire-safe” cigarettes, which is denoted by a long black bar above the bar code on this pack of Marlboro Lights which was photographed on Friday, June 25, 2004, in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. The “fire-safe” cigarettes will self-extinguish if they’re not puffed on regularly. (AP Photo/Jim McKnight)

by: The Associated Press

Posted: May 11, 2023 / 01:23 PM EDT

Updated: May 11, 2023 / 01:23 PM EDT

BOST0N (AP) — The highest court in Massachusetts has upheld a nearly $37 million judgment for a woman who said she developed cancer after switching to Marlboro Light cigarettes because she thought they were less dangerous than what she had previously smoked.

The Supreme Judicial Court’s unanimous ruling on Tuesday said that Patricia Walsh Greene might have smoked less or quit sooner had she not been swayed by Philip Morris’ claims that Marlboro Lights were safer.

Greene started smoking in 1971 at age 13 and developed lung cancer in 2013 more than decade after she quit. An email seeking comment was left with Altria, Philip Morris’ parent company.