Tobacco industry to pay damages to smoker and insurance firm

The tobacco industry was hit by two legal judgments in the United States last week. It was ordered to pay $3bn (£2.1bn) in punitive damages to a smoker who had developed brain and lung cancer and $30m to an insurance company who claimed damages for having to care for sick smokers.

In one of the largest individual damage awards ever made against the tobacco industry, a Los Angeles jury ordered Philip Morris to pay 56 year old Richard Boeken $3bn in punitive damages and about $6m in compensatory damage. Mr …