Judge Considers Wrongful Death Case By Son of Ex-Smoker
A Los Angeles judge today began pondering just how much evidence a lawyer needed to present to a jury to prove a 15-year-old boy’s wrongful death case against a tobacco giant on behalf of his father.
Dylan Boeken’s father, Richard Boeken, made headlines in 2001 when he won a $3 billion judgment against Philip Morris USA Inc. — a sum subsequently cut to $55 million.Richard Boeken died in January 2002 at age 57, seven months after the verdict in his case. The disease had spread to his spine and brain.
Boeken’s widow, Judy, and son filed a wrongful death case against Philip Morris on June 2.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge David L. Minning issued a nine-page ruling in February in which he threw out Judy Boeken’s claims entirely, but gave her son a chance to revise his complaint.
The lawsuit was modified, and the boy’s lawsuit is set for trial Oct. 29.
Dylan Boeken’s lawyer, Michael J. Piuze, maintains most of the issues in the case were decided in the first trial. He said the jury should only have to determine if Boeken died of lung cancer and, if so, what his son’s damages are.
Philip Morris wants a complete trial on all the issues.
Minning did not make a final ruling today and took the case under submission.
The lawsuit was the third filed by members of the Boeken family against Philip Morris. Richard Boeken sued the company for personal injury in March 2000, five months after the two-pack-a-day Marlboro smoker was diagnosed with lung cancer.
Richard Boeken began smoking at age 13, Piuze said. His client later attended Hollywood High School and bought some of the cigarettes he used from a vending machine in the International House of Pancakes across Sunset Boulevard, Piuze said.
The vending machine was in an alcove near the restroom, Piuze said.
At the time, Judy Boeken sued separately for loss of consortium. She later dropped her suit.
After a trial of Richard Boeken’s lawsuit, a jury in June 2001 directed Philip Morris to pay him $3 billion, that year’s largest award according to a survey by Lawyers Weekly USA magazine.
Judge Charles McCoy cut the award to $100 million that August.
Appeals were then filed by both sides. In September 2004, a panel from the 2nd District Court of Appeal affirmed the judgment but further reduced the damages to $50 million.
Both sides filed petitions, asking the panel to rehear the matter. The case was reheard in February 2005, but the justices later affirmed the $50 million award less than two months later.
Piuze said the tobacco company ultimately paid $55 million, plus many millions of dollars more in interest.
Judy Boeken never remarried, said Piuze, who is appealing Minning’s ruling that dismissed her as a plaintiff in the current case.