Friday, December 16, 2005

Illinois Supreme Court reverses $10.1 billion judgment

The Illinois Supreme Court reversed a $10.1 billion class action judgment against Philip Morris in a 4-2 opinion released yesterday.

The Marlboro man can breathe easier today!

Or is that too obscure? Should it be -- well, Philip Morris can breathe easier today?

Anyone remember the old commercial tagline -- Call for Philip Mor-ris? (In the olden days, kiddies, a page would go through the lobby or the restaurant to alert someone that he or she was wanted on the phone. The phone wasn't in your pocket. And it was connected to the wall, by a wire. Which was never quite long enough. Anyway, the idea was a play on words: Call for Philip Mor-ris (the syllables were extended in the tagline) was to remind you to call for (ask for) Philip Morris products when you next bought cigarettes. So: "Call for Philip Mor-ris! ... It's safe to come out now...."

P.S. -- If the above link does not take you to the opinion (and it didn't work for me either intially, although I think it may be fixed now) use this link to the Recent Opinions page instead and scroll down to the Price v. Philip Morris opinion. This link should work for 30 days after the posting of the opinion, through mid-January 2006.

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