Mealey's ( April 22, 2026, 11:21 AM EDT) -- BOSTON — The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court on April 22 affirmed a $56 million punitive damages award in favor of the estate of a smoker who died from lung cancer at age 60, which the trial court judge reduced on remittitur down from the original amount of $1 billion in punitive damages against a tobacco company. The court said that the trial court properly found that the jurors “were not inflamed by passion or prejudice” and that the verdict after the judge’s reduction “was within constitutionally permissible bounds.”...