Smoker accepts award reduction A 64-year-old...

Smoker accepts award reduction

A 64-year-old Newport Beach woman who won a record $28-billion

jury award against Philip Morris in October will accept a judge’s

decision to reduce the award to $28 million, her attorney said

Tuesday.

But Betty Bullock, a smoker diagnosed with cancer, will still

appeal the judge’s Dec. 18 ruling, attorney Michael Piuze said. He

said Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Warren L. Ettinger was required

to state reasons for the reduction.

“The only reason Judge Ettinger gave for reducing the award was he

thought the amount was too much.”

Piuze said Bullock accepted the ruling because any new trial would

only involve $850,000 in compensatory damages, not the punitive

damages, the larger portion of the award.

“We would just be going around in circles,” he said.

Bullock reportedly began primarily smoking a Phillip Morris brand

at 17.