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EDITOR IN CHIEF
Ryan Frank
EDITORIAL EDITORS
KameronCole
Stefanie Knowlton
Bigger isn’t x
always better
The huge settlement in the Philip
Morris suit in Portland may
actually hurt chances in the
appeals process
Eighty million dollars is a hell of a lot of
money. A luxurious mansion, cars for all
your friends and trips around the world in
your personal jet would not even make a
dent in $80.3 million.
It is even more when you consider that $80.3
million is how much you can get if you sue a tobac
co company for manufacturing a product that you
choose to use extensively.
A Portland jury awarded just such a settlement
for the cancer-related death of 42-year smoker Jesse
Williams against tobacco giant Philip Morris Inc.
It’s the largest tobacco settlement ever awarded, if
you exclude the 46 state settlements equaling $206
billion in November 1997.
Apparently the information that sealed the ver
dict were documents authored by Philip Morris
that acknowledged cigarette smoking is addictive
and harmful. But the company chose to deny such
accusations publicly.
In Oregon product liability cases such as this,
the plaintiff must prove that the product manufac
turer is at least 50 percent responsible to be award
ed damages. Therefore, the argument that personal
responsibility, as in Jesse Williams’ choices and
actions, should determine the case is only half of
the question the jury must answer.
But because surgeon general warnings that
smoking is harmful have been available since 1964
and evidence has been mounting for 35 years, it is
hard to allocate 50 percent of the blame to Philip
Morris, even if it tried to mislead the public.
In addition, Oregon’s product liability law has
statutes of limitations. Under Oregon law, the jury
should have only considered evi
dence between 1988 and 1996. Only
damage incurred eight years prior to a prod
uct liability suit is allowed to be introduced
as evidence.
No one, no matter how reclusive, could
claim they didn’t know the ill effects of smok
ing cigarettes after 1988. Also, the damages in
curred by Williams’ habit occurred during a 42
year period and could in no way be sectioned
off to eight years.
It appears that these little legal details were of
no concern when jurors saw the big money target
and the sad story of a family that lost someone to
lung cancer.
It is precisely these little details that will most
likely overturn the $80.3 million verdict in the
appeals process. In fact, of the five U.S. tobacco
suits that awarded damages against cigarette mak
ers, three have since been overturned.
Tobacco companies do have a responsibility
and that is why the government has pursued com
pensation for medical costs associated with smok
ing. But huge damage awards just do not fly when
personal choice and prior knowledge of danger
play such a role in the decision to smoke.
If the suit was limited to medical and similar ex
penses, it might have had a chance in an appellate
court. As it stands, there is little doubt that Philip
Morris will win the case in the end.
This editorial represents the opinion of the Emerald ed
itorial board. Responses may he sent to
ode@oregon. uoregon .edu.
I
i1
Letters to the Editor
Budget oversight
It was with astonishment that I read
that Cheryl Hunter’s position in the
ASUO was being eliminated in the
1999-2000 budget, (ODE, March 31).
During my two years as Student
Senate president (1994-96), I came to
rely on Cheryl’s wealth of knowledge
regarding ASUO procedures, history
and how the ASUO relates to the Uni
versity system overall.
Rumors of Cheryl’s demise have
been around for several years, and
they always boil down to the ASUO
Executive’s inability to accept that
they don’t know everything. Kids
don’t want to be told what to do, and
Cheryl is effectively the parental ob
ject against whom some feel they
must continue to rebel.
As a student senator, I always
pushed for lowering fees and reduc
ing spending, but even 1 wasn’t dumb
enough to suggest cutting off my nose
to spite my face.
Martin Fisher
Attorney at Law
Bend
Discriminating policy
We’re living in a strange world. Our
tax dollars are currently funding two
extremely expensive military opera
tions in the Middle East and now in
Europe.
I can understand the need to spend
money on defense. After all, we need
to keep our people and our borders se
cure, however, I fail to see the need to
bomb Yugoslavia or Iraq for so-called
human-rights issues.
If we’re going to use human-rights
violations as a reason to invade an au
tonomous nation, we should have in
vaded a number of countries long ago.
Why hasn’t NATO bombed China
to free Tibet? Why hasn’t the United
States pumped millions of dollars
into East Timor to rid them from In
donesian occupation? Especially con
sidering that the Indonesian govern
ment has killed more people in East
Timor than Milosevic has in Kosovo.
Bombing nations on different con
tinents is a far cry from a real solution
to human-rights violations. Ethnic
cleansing, racism and history cannot
be forgotten with stealth fighters,
smart bombs and other weapons. Yu
goslavia has dealt with problems like
these in the past and will continue to
deal with them in the future. 1 just fail
to see why the United States needs to
get involved now.
Who needs action when you’ve
got words?” — The Meat Puppets
Christopher Joseph Baker
Sociology/Philosophy
LETTERS POLICY
The Oregon Daily Emerald will at
tempt to print all letters containing
comments on topics of interest to
the University community. Letters
must be limited to 250 words. The
Emerald reserves the right to edit
any letter for length, clarity, gram
mar, style and libel. Letters may be
dropped off at EMU Suite 300.
Thumbs
A
THUMBS UP
To the economy:
The nation's un
employment rale
hit a low of 4.2
percent last
month, the lowest
rate in 29 years.
Economists claim
that all levels of
jobs are benefiting
from the econom
ic boom.
To accuracy:
According to a re
cent 20/20 pro
gram on ABC, K
12 school
textbooks, includ
ing a specific text
used at Roosevelt
Middle School
here in Eugene,
have as many as
300 factual errors.
By raising aware
ness, 20/20 may
help schools insist
on accuracy of
learning tools.
THUMBS DOWN
To daylight sav
ings:
All those who re
membered to set
their clocks on
Saturday night
lost an hour of
precious sleep
and those who
didn’t had to suf
fer looking foolish
walking in an hour
late. We propose
that Oregon do
away with this suf
fering and elimi
nate daylight sav
ings like Arizona,
Hawaii and Indi
ana have done.
To domestic vio
lence:
One out of eight
Oregon women
have been victims
of domestic vio
lence in the last
year, according to
a recent statewide
survey. And three
of five Oregon
children wit
nessed acts of do
mestic violence in
the past year.