(Slip Opinion) OCTOBER TERM, 2006 1
Syllabus
NOTE: Where it is feasible, a syllabus (headnote) will be released, as is
being done in connection with this case, at the time the opinion is issued.
The syllabus constitutes no part of the opinion of the Court but has been
prepared by the Reporter of Decisions for the convenience of the reader.
See United States v. Detroit Timber & Lumber Co., 200 U. S. 321, 337.
SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES
Syllabus
PHILIP MORRIS USA v. WILLIAMS, PERSONAL REPRE
SENTATIVE OF ESTATE OF WILLIAMS, DECEASED
CERTIORARI TO THE SUPREME COURT OF OREGON
No. 05–1256. Argued October 31, 2006—Decided February 20, 2007
In this state negligence and deceit lawsuit, a jury found that Jesse Wil
liams’ death was caused by smoking and that petitioner Philip Mor
ris, which manufactured the cigarettes he favored, knowingly and
falsely led him to believe that smoking was safe. In respect to deceit,
it awarded $821,000 in compensatory damages and $79.5 million in
punitive damages to respondent, the personal representative of Wil
liams’ estate. The trial court reduced the latter award, but it was re
stored by the Oregon Court of Appeals. The State Supreme Court re
jected Philip Morris’ arguments that the trial court should have
instructed the jury that it could not punish Philip Morris for injury to
persons not before the court, and that the roughly 100-to-1 ratio the
$79.5 million award bore to the compensatory damages amount indi
cated a “grossly excessive” punitive award.
Held:
1. A punitive damages award based in part on a jury’s desire to
punish a defendant for harming nonparties amounts to a taking of
property from the defendant without due process. Pp. 4–10.
(a) While “[p]unitive damages may properly be imposed to fur
ther a State’s legitimate interests in punishing unlawful conduct and
deterring its repetition,” BMW of North America, Inc. v. Gore, 517
U. S. 559, 568, unless a State insists upon proper standards to cabin
the jury’s discretionary authority, its punitive damages system may
deprive a defendant of “fair notice . . . of the severity of the penalty
that a State may impose,” id., at 574; may threaten “arbitrary pun
ishments,” State Farm Mut. Automobile Ins. Co. v. Campbell, 538
U. S. 408, 416; and, where the amounts are sufficiently large, may
impose one State’s (or one jury’s) “policy choice” upon “neighboring
States” with different public policies, BMW, supra, at 571–572. Thus,
2 PHILIP MORRIS USA v. WILLIAMS
Syllabus
the Constitution imposes limits on both the procedures for awarding
punitive damages and amounts forbidden as “grossly excessive.” See
Honda Motor Co. v. Oberg, 512 U. S. 415, 432. The Constitution’s
procedural limitations are considered here. Pp. 4–5.
(b) The Due Process Clause forbids a State to use a punitive
damages award to punish a defendant for injury inflicted on strang
ers to the litigation. For one thing, a defendant threatened with pun
ishment for such injury has no opportunity to defend against the
charge. See Lindsey v. Normet, 405 U. S. 56, 66. For another, per
mitting such punishment would add a near standardless dimension
to the punitive damages equation and magnify the fundamental due
process concerns of this Court’s pertinent cases—arbitrariness, un
certainty, and lack of notice. Finally, the Court finds no authority to
support using punitive damages awards to punish a defendant for
harming others. BMW, supra, at 568, n.11, distinguished. Respon
dent argues that showing harm to others is relevant to a different
part of the punitive damages constitutional equation, namely, repre
hensibility. While evidence of actual harm to nonparties can help to
show that the conduct that harmed the plaintiff also posed a substan
tial risk to the general public, and so was particularly reprehensible,
a jury may not go further and use a punitive damages verdict to pun
ish a defendant directly for harms to those nonparties. Given the
risks of unfairness, it is constitutionally important for a court to pro
vide assurance that a jury is asking the right question; and given the
risks of arbitrariness, inadequate notice, and imposing one State’s po
licies on other States, it is particularly important that States avoid
procedure that unnecessarily deprives juries of proper legal guidance.
Pp. 5–8.
(c) The Oregon Supreme Court’s opinion focused on more than
reprehensibility. In rejecting Philip Morris’ claim that the Constitu
tion prohibits using punitive damages to punish a defendant for
harm to nonparties, it made three statements. The first—that this
Court held in State Farm only that a jury could not base an award on
dissimilar acts of a defendant—was correct, but this Court now ex
plicitly holds that a jury may not punish for harm to others. This
Court disagrees with the second statement—that if a jury cannot
punish for the conduct, there is no reason to consider it—since the
Due Process Clause prohibits a State’s inflicting punishment for
harm to nonparties, but permits a jury to consider such harm in de
termining reprehensibility. The third statement—that it is unclear
how a jury could consider harm to nonparties and then withhold that
consideration from the punishment calculus—raises the practical
problem of how to know whether a jury punished the defendant for
causing injury to others rather than just took such injury into ac
Cite as: 549 U. S. ____ (2007) 3
Syllabus
count under the rubric of reprehensibility. The answer is that state
courts cannot authorize procedures that create an unreasonable and
unnecessary risk of any such confusion occurring. Although States
have some flexibility in determining what kind of procedures to im
plement to protect against that risk, federal constitutional law obli
gates them to provide some form of protection where the risk of mis
understanding is a significant one. Pp. 8–10.
2. Because the Oregon Supreme Court’s application of the correct
standard may lead to a new trial, or a change in the level of the puni
tive damages award, this Court will not consider the question
whether the award is constitutionally “grossly excessive.” P. 10.
340 Ore. 35, 127 P. 3d 1165, vacated and remanded.
BREYER, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which ROBERTS,
C. J., and KENNEDY, SOUTER, and ALITO, JJ., joined. STEVENS, J., and
THOMAS, J., filed dissenting opinions. GINSBURG, J., filed a dissenting
opinion, in which SCALIA and THOMAS, JJ., joined.
Cite as: 549 U. S. ____ (2007) 1
Opinion of the Court
NOTICE: This opinion is subject to formal revision before publication in the
preliminary print of the United States Reports. Readers are requested to
notify the Reporter of Decisions, Supreme Court of the United States, Wash
ington, D. C. 20543, of any typographical or other formal errors, in order
that corrections may be made before the preliminary print goes to press.
SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES
_________________
No. 05–1256
_________________
PHILIP MORRIS USA, PETITIONER v. MAYOLA
WILLIAMS, PERSONAL REPRESENTATIVE OF THE
ESTATE OF JESSE D. WILLIAMS,
DECEASED
ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE SUPREME COURT OF
OREGON
[February 20, 2007]
JUSTICE BREYER delivered the opinion of the Court.
The question we address today concerns a large state-
court punitive damages award. We are asked whether the
Constitution’s Due Process Clause permits a jury to base
that award in part upon its desire to punish the defendant
for harming persons who are not before the court (e.g.,
victims whom the parties do not represent). We hold that
such an award would amount to a taking of “property”
from the defendant without due process.
I
This lawsuit arises out of the death of Jesse Williams, a
heavy cigarette smoker. Respondent, Williams’ widow,
represents his estate in this state lawsuit for negligence
and deceit against Philip Morris, the manufacturer of
Marlboro, the brand that Williams favored. A jury found
that Williams’ death was caused by smoking; that Wil
liams smoked in significant part because he thought it was
safe to do so; and that Philip Morris knowingly and falsely
led him to believe that this was so. The jury ultimately
2 PHILIP MORRIS USA v. WILLIAMS
Opinion of the Court
found that Philip Morris was negligent (as was Williams)
and that Philip Morris had engaged in deceit. In respect
to deceit, the claim at issue here, it awarded compensatory
damages of about $821,000 (about $21,000 economic and
$800,000 noneconomic) along with $79.5 million in puni
tive damages.
The trial judge subsequently found the $79.5 million
punitive damages award “excessive,” see, e.g., BMW of
North America, Inc. v. Gore, 517 U. S. 559 (1996), and
reduced it to $32 million. Both sides appealed. The Ore
gon Court of Appeals rejected Philip Morris’ arguments
and restored the $79.5 million jury award. Subsequently,
Philip Morris sought review in the Oregon Supreme Court
(which denied review) and then here. We remanded the
case in light of State Farm Mut. Automobile Ins. Co. v.
Campbell, 538 U. S. 408 (2003). 540 U. S. 801 (2003). The
Oregon Court of Appeals adhered to its original views.
And Philip Morris sought, and this time obtained, review
in the Oregon Supreme Court.
Philip Morris then made two arguments relevant here.
First, it said that the trial court should have accepted, but
did not accept, a proposed “punitive damages” instruction
that specified the jury could not seek to punish Philip
Morris for injury to other persons not before the court. In
particular, Philip Morris pointed out that the plaintiff’s
attorney had told the jury to “think about how many other
Jesse Williams in the last 40 years in the State of Oregon
there have been. . . . In Oregon, how many people do we
see outside, driving home . . . smoking cigarettes? . . .
[C]igarettes . . . are going to kill ten [of every hundred].
[And] the market share of Marlboros [i.e., Philip Morris] is
one-third [i.e., one of every three killed].” App. 197a, 199a.
In light of this argument, Philip Morris asked the trial
court to tell the jury that “you may consider the extent of
harm suffered by others in determining what [the] reason
able relationship is” between any punitive award and “the
Cite as: 549 U. S. ____ (2007) 3
Opinion of the Court
harm caused to Jesse Williams” by Philip Morris’ miscon
duct, “[but] you are not to punish the defendant for the
impact of its alleged misconduct on other persons, who
may bring lawsuits of their own in which other juries can
resolve their claims . . . .” Id., at 280a. The judge rejected
this proposal and instead told the jury that “[p]unitive
damages are awarded against a defendant to punish mis
conduct and to deter misconduct,” and “are not intended to
compensate the plaintiff or anyone else for damages
caused by the defendant’s conduct.” Id., at 283a. In Philip
Morris’ view, the result was a significant likelihood that a
portion of the $79.5 million award represented punish
ment for its having harmed others, a punishment that the
Due Process Clause would here forbid.
Second, Philip Morris pointed to the roughly 100-to-1
ratio the $79.5 million punitive damages award bears to
$821,000 in compensatory damages. Philip Morris noted
that this Court in BMW emphasized the constitutional
need for punitive damages awards to reflect (1) the “rep
rehensibility” of the defendant’s conduct, (2) a “reasonable
relationship” to the harm the plaintiff (or related victim)
suffered, and (3) the presence (or absence) of “sanctions,”
e.g., criminal penalties, that state law provided for compa
rable conduct, 517 U. S., at 575–585. And in State Farm,
this Court said that the longstanding historical practice of
setting punitive damages at two, three, or four times the
size of compensatory damages, while “not binding,” is
“instructive,” and that “[s]ingle-digit multipliers are more
likely to comport with due process.” 538 U. S., at 425.
Philip Morris claimed that, in light of this case law, the
punitive award was “grossly excessive.” See TXO Produc
tion Corp. v. Alliance Resources Corp., 509 U. S. 443, 458
(1993) (plurality opinion); BMW, supra, at 574–575; State
Farm, supra, at 416–417.
The Oregon Supreme Court rejected these and other
Philip Morris arguments. In particular, it rejected Philip
4 PHILIP MORRIS USA v. WILLIAMS
Opinion of the Court
Morris’ claim that the Constitution prohibits a state jury
“from using punitive damages to punish a defendant for
harm to nonparties.” 340 Ore. 35, 51–52, 127 P. 3d 1165,
1175 (2006). And in light of Philip Morris’ reprehensible
conduct, it found that the $79.5 million award was not
“grossly excessive.” Id., at 63–64, 127 P. 3d, at 1181–1182.
Philip Morris then sought certiorari. It asked us to
consider, among other things, (1) its claim that Oregon
had unconstitutionally permitted it to be punished for
harming nonparty victims; and (2) whether Oregon had in
effect disregarded “the constitutional requirement that
punitive damages be reasonably related to the plaintiff’s
harm.” Pet. for Cert. (I). We granted certiorari limited to
these two questions.
For reasons we shall set forth, we consider only the first
of these questions. We vacate the Oregon Supreme
Court’s judgment, and we remand the case for further
proceedings.
II
This Court has long made clear that “[p]unitive dam
ages may properly be imposed to further a State’s legiti
mate interests in punishing unlawful conduct and deter
ring its repetition.” BMW, supra, at 568. See also Gertz v.
Robert Welch, Inc., 418 U. S. 323, 350 (1974); Newport v.
Fact Concerts, Inc., 453 U. S. 247, 266–267 (1981); Pacific
Mut. Life Ins. Co. v. Haslip, 499 U. S. 1, 22 (1991). At the
same time, we have emphasized the need to avoid an
arbitrary determination of an award’s amount. Unless a
State insists upon proper standards that will cabin the
jury’s discretionary authority, its punitive damages sys
tem may deprive a defendant of “fair notice . . . of the
severity of the penalty that a State may impose,” BMW,
supra, at 574; it may threaten “arbitrary punishments,”
i.e., punishments that reflect not an “application of law”
but “a decisionmaker’s caprice,” State Farm, supra, at 416,
Cite as: 549 U. S. ____ (2007) 5
Opinion of the Court
418 (internal quotation marks omitted); and, where the
amounts are sufficiently large, it may impose one State’s
(or one jury’s) “policy choice,” say as to the conditions
under which (or even whether) certain products can be
sold, upon “neighboring States” with different public
policies, BMW, supra, at 571–572.
For these and similar reasons, this Court has found that
the Constitution imposes certain limits, in respect both to
procedures for awarding punitive damages and to amounts
forbidden as “grossly excessive.” See Honda Motor Co. v.
Oberg, 512 U. S. 415, 432 (1994) (requiring judicial review
of the size of punitive awards); Cooper Industries, Inc. v.
Leatherman Tool Group, Inc., 532 U. S. 424, 443 (2001)
(review must be de novo); BMW, supra, at 574–585 (exces
siveness decision depends upon the reprehensibility of the
defendant’s conduct, whether the award bears a reason
able relationship to the actual and potential harm caused
by the defendant to the plaintiff, and the difference be
tween the award and sanctions “authorized or imposed in
comparable cases”); State Farm, supra, at 425 (excessive
ness more likely where ratio exceeds single digits). Be
cause we shall not decide whether the award here at issue
is “grossly excessive,” we need now only consider the
Constitution’s procedural limitations.
III
In our view, the Constitution’s Due Process Clause
forbids a State to use a punitive damages award to punish
a defendant for injury that it inflicts upon nonparties or
those whom they directly represent, i.e., injury that it
inflicts upon those who are, essentially, strangers to the
litigation. For one thing, the Due Process Clause prohibits
a State from punishing an individual without first provid
ing that individual with “an opportunity to present every
available defense.” Lindsey v. Normet, 405 U. S. 56, 66
(1972) (internal quotation marks omitted). Yet a defen
6 PHILIP MORRIS USA v. WILLIAMS
Opinion of the Court
dant threatened with punishment for injuring a nonparty
victim has no opportunity to defend against the charge, by
showing, for example in a case such as this, that the other
victim was not entitled to damages because he or she
knew that smoking was dangerous or did not rely upon the
defendant’s statements to the contrary.
For another, to permit punishment for injuring a non
party victim would add a near standardless dimension to
the punitive damages equation. How many such victims
are there? How seriously were they injured? Under what
circumstances did injury occur? The trial will not likely
answer such questions as to nonparty victims. The jury
will be left to speculate. And the fundamental due process
concerns to which our punitive damages cases refer—risks
of arbitrariness, uncertainty and lack of notice—will be
magnified. State Farm, 538 U. S., at 416, 418; BMW, 517
U. S., at 574.
Finally, we can find no authority supporting the use of
punitive damages awards for the purpose of punishing a
defendant for harming others. We have said that it may
be appropriate to consider the reasonableness of a punitive
damages award in light of the potential harm the defen
dant’s conduct could have caused. But we have made clear
that the potential harm at issue was harm potentially
caused the plaintiff. See State Farm, supra, at 424 (“[W]e
have been reluctant to identify concrete constitutional
limits on the ratio between harm, or potential harm, to the
plaintiff and the punitive damages award” (emphasis
added)). See also TXO, 509 U. S., at 460–462 (plurality
opinion) (using same kind of comparison as basis for find
ing a punitive award not unconstitutionally excessive).
We did use the term “error-free” (in BMW) to describe a
lower court punitive damages calculation that likely in
cluded harm to others in the equation. 517 U. S., at 568,
n. 11. But context makes clear that the term “error-free”
in the BMW footnote referred to errors relevant to the case
Cite as: 549 U. S. ____ (2007) 7
Opinion of the Court
at hand. Although elsewhere in BMW we noted that there
was no suggestion that the plaintiff “or any other BMW
purchaser was threatened with any additional potential
harm” by the defendant’s conduct, we did not purport to
decide the question of harm to others. Id., at 582. Rather,
the opinion appears to have left the question open.
Respondent argues that she is free to show harm to
other victims because it is relevant to a different part of
the punitive damages constitutional equation, namely,
reprehensibility. That is to say, harm to others shows
more reprehensible conduct. Philip Morris, in turn, does
not deny that a plaintiff may show harm to others in order
to demonstrate reprehensibility. Nor do we. Evidence of
actual harm to nonparties can help to show that the con
duct that harmed the plaintiff also posed a substantial
risk of harm to the general public, and so was particularly
reprehensible—although counsel may argue in a particu
lar case that conduct resulting in no harm to others none
theless posed a grave risk to the public, or the converse.
Yet for the reasons given above, a jury may not go further
than this and use a punitive damages verdict to punish a
defendant directly on account of harms it is alleged to
have visited on nonparties.
Given the risks of unfairness that we have mentioned, it
is constitutionally important for a court to provide assur
ance that the jury will ask the right question, not the
wrong one. And given the risks of arbitrariness, the con
cern for adequate notice, and the risk that punitive dam
ages awards can, in practice, impose one State’s (or one
jury’s) policies (e.g., banning cigarettes) upon other
States—all of which accompany awards that, today, may
be many times the size of such awards in the 18th and
19th centuries, see id., at 594–595 (BREYER, J., concur
ring)—it is particularly important that States avoid proce
dure that unnecessarily deprives juries of proper legal
guidance. We therefore conclude that the Due Process
8 PHILIP MORRIS USA v. WILLIAMS
Opinion of the Court
Clause requires States to provide assurance that juries are
not asking the wrong question, i.e., seeking, not simply to
determine reprehensibility, but also to punish for harm
caused strangers.
IV
Respondent suggests as well that the Oregon Supreme
Court, in essence, agreed with us, that it did not authorize
punitive damages awards based upon punishment for
harm caused to nonparties. We concede that one might
read some portions of the Oregon Supreme Court’s opinion
as focusing only upon reprehensibility. See, e.g., 340 Ore.,
at 51, 127 P. 3d, at 1175 (“[T]he jury could consider
whether Williams and his misfortune were merely exem
plars of the harm that Philip Morris was prepared to
inflict on the smoking public at large”). But the Oregon
court’s opinion elsewhere makes clear that that court held
more than these few phrases might suggest.
The instruction that Philip Morris said the trial court
should have given distinguishes between using harm to
others as part of the “reasonable relationship” equation
(which it would allow) and using it directly as a basis for
punishment. The instruction asked the trial court to tell
the jury that “you may consider the extent of harm suf
fered by others in determining what [the] reasonable rela
tionship is” between Philip Morris’ punishable misconduct
and harm caused to Jesse Williams, “[but] you are not to
punish the defendant for the impact of its alleged miscon
duct on other persons, who may bring lawsuits of their own
in which other juries can resolve their claims . . . .” App.
280a (emphasis added). And as the Oregon Supreme
Court explicitly recognized, Philip Morris argued that the
Constitution “prohibits the state, acting through a civil
jury, from using punitive damages to punish a defendant
for harm to nonparties.” 340 Ore., at 51–52, 127 P. 3d, at
1175.
Cite as: 549 U. S. ____ (2007) 9
Opinion of the Court
The court rejected that claim. In doing so, it pointed out
(1) that this Court in State Farm had held only that a jury
could not base its award upon “dissimilar” acts of a defen
dant. 340 Ore., at 52–53, 127 P. 3d, at 1175–1176. It
added (2) that “[i]f a jury cannot punish for the conduct,
then it is difficult to see why it may consider it at all.” Id.,
at 52, n. 3, 127 P. 3d, at 1175, n. 3. And it stated (3) that
“[i]t is unclear to us how a jury could ‘consider’ harm to
others, yet withhold that consideration from the punish
ment calculus.” Ibid.
The Oregon court’s first statement is correct. We did
not previously hold explicitly that a jury may not punish
for the harm caused others. But we do so hold now. We
do not agree with the Oregon court’s second statement.
We have explained why we believe the Due Process Clause
prohibits a State’s inflicting punishment for harm caused
strangers to the litigation. At the same time we recognize
that conduct that risks harm to many is likely more rep
rehensible than conduct that risks harm to only a few.
And a jury consequently may take this fact into account in
determining reprehensibility. Cf., e.g., Witte v. United
States, 515 U. S. 389, 400 (1995) (recidivism statutes
taking into account a criminal defendant’s other miscon
duct do not impose an “ ‘additional penalty for the earlier
crimes,’ but instead . . . ‘a stiffened penalty for the latest
crime, which is considered to be an aggravated offense
because a repetitive one’ ” (quoting Gryger v. Burke, 334
U. S. 728, 732 (1948))).
The Oregon court’s third statement raises a practical
problem. How can we know whether a jury, in taking
account of harm caused others under the rubric of repre
hensibility, also seeks to punish the defendant for having
caused injury to others? Our answer is that state courts
cannot authorize procedures that create an unreasonable
and unnecessary risk of any such confusion occurring. In
particular, we believe that where the risk of that misun
10 PHILIP MORRIS USA v. WILLIAMS
Opinion of the Court
derstanding is a significant one—because, for instance, of
the sort of evidence that was introduced at trial or the
kinds of argument the plaintiff made to the jury—a court,
upon request, must protect against that risk. Although
the States have some flexibility to determine what kind of
procedures they will implement, federal constitutional law
obligates them to provide some form of protection in ap
propriate cases.
V
As the preceding discussion makes clear, we believe that
the Oregon Supreme Court applied the wrong constitu
tional standard when considering Philip Morris’ appeal.
We remand this case so that the Oregon Supreme Court
can apply the standard we have set forth. Because the
application of this standard may lead to the need for a new
trial, or a change in the level of the punitive damages
award, we shall not consider whether the award is consti
tutionally “grossly excessive.” We vacate the Oregon
Supreme Court’s judgment and remand the case for fur
ther proceedings not inconsistent with this opinion.
It is so ordered.
Cite as: 549 U. S. ____ (2007) 1
STEVENS, J., dissenting
SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES
_________________
No. 05–1256
_________________
PHILIP MORRIS USA, PETITIONER v. MAYOLA
WILLIAMS, PERSONAL REPRESENTATIVE OF THE
ESTATE OF JESSE D. WILLIAMS,
DECEASED
ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE SUPREME COURT OF
OREGON
[February 20, 2007]
JUSTICE STEVENS, dissenting.
The Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment
imposes both substantive and procedural constraints on
the power of the States to impose punitive damages on
tortfeasors. See State Farm Mut. Automobile Ins. Co. v.
Campbell, 538 U. S. 408 (2003); Cooper Industries, Inc. v.
Leatherman Tool Group, Inc., 532 U. S. 424 (2001); BMW
of North America, Inc. v. Gore, 517 U. S. 559 (1996);
Honda Motor Co. v. Oberg, 512 U. S. 415 (1994); TXO
Production Corp. v. Alliance Resources Corp., 509 U. S.
443 (1993). I remain firmly convinced that the cases
announcing those constraints were correctly decided. In
my view the Oregon Supreme Court faithfully applied the
reasoning in those opinions to the egregious facts disclosed
by this record. I agree with JUSTICE GINSBURG’s explana
tion of why no procedural error even arguably justifying
reversal occurred at the trial in this case. See post, p. ___.
Of greater importance to me, however, is the Court’s
imposition of a novel limit on the State’s power to impose
punishment in civil litigation. Unlike the Court, I see no
reason why an interest in punishing a wrongdoer “for
harming persons who are not before the court,” ante, at 1,
should not be taken into consideration when assessing the
2 PHILIP MORRIS USA v. WILLIAMS
STEVENS, J., dissenting
appropriate sanction for reprehensible conduct.
Whereas compensatory damages are measured by the
harm the defendant has caused the plaintiff, punitive
damages are a sanction for the public harm the defen
dant’s conduct has caused or threatened. There is little
difference between the justification for a criminal sanc
tion, such as a fine or a term of imprisonment, and an
award of punitive damages. See Cooper Industries, 532
U. S., at 432. In our early history either type of sanction
might have been imposed in litigation prosecuted by a
private citizen. See Steel Co. v. Citizens for Better Envi
ronment, 523 U. S. 83, 127–128 (1998) (STEVENS, J., con
curring in judgment). And while in neither context would
the sanction typically include a pecuniary award meas
ured by the harm that the conduct had caused to any third
parties, in both contexts the harm to third parties would
surely be a relevant factor to consider in evaluating the
reprehensibility of the defendant’s wrongdoing. We have
never held otherwise.
In the case before us, evidence attesting to the possible
harm the defendant’s extensive deceitful conduct caused
other Oregonians was properly presented to the jury. No
evidence was offered to establish an appropriate measure
of damages to compensate such third parties for their
injuries, and no one argued that the punitive damages
award would serve any such purpose. To award compen
satory damages to remedy such third-party harm might
well constitute a taking of property from the defendant
without due process, see ante, at 1. But a punitive dam
ages award, instead of serving a compensatory purpose,
serves the entirely different purposes of retribution and
deterrence that underlie every criminal sanction. State
Farm, 538 U. S., at 416. This justification for punitive
damages has even greater salience when, as in this case,
see Ore. Rev. Stat. §31.735(1) (2003), the award is payable
in whole or in part to the State rather than to the private
Cite as: 549 U. S. ____ (2007) 3
STEVENS, J., dissenting
litigant.1
While apparently recognizing the novelty of its holding,
ante, at 9, the majority relies on a distinction between
taking third-party harm into account in order to assess the
reprehensibility of the defendant’s conduct—which is
permitted—from doing so in order to punish the defendant
“directly”—which is forbidden. Ante, at 7. This nuance
eludes me. When a jury increases a punitive damages
award because injuries to third parties enhanced the
reprehensibility of the defendant’s conduct, the jury is by
definition punishing the defendant—directly—for third-
party harm.2 A murderer who kills his victim by throwing
a bomb that injures dozens of bystanders should be pun
ished more severely than one who harms no one other
than his intended victim. Similarly, there is no reason
why the measure of the appropriate punishment for en
gaging in a campaign of deceit in distributing a poisonous
and addictive substance to thousands of cigarette smokers
——————
1 The Court’s holding in Browning-Ferris Industries of Vt., Inc. v.
Kelco Disposal, Inc., 492 U. S. 257 (1989), distinguished, for the pur
poses of appellate review under the Excessive Fines Clause of the
Eighth Amendment, between criminal sanctions and civil fines
awarded entirely to the plaintiff. The fact that part of the award in this
case is payable to the State lends further support to my conclusion that
it should be treated as the functional equivalent of a criminal sanction.
See id., at 263–264. I continue to agree with Justice O’Connor and
those scholars who have concluded that the Excessive Fines Clause is
applicable to punitive damages awards regardless of who receives the
ultimate payout. See id., at 286–299 (O’Connor, J., concurring in part
and dissenting in part).
2 It is no answer to refer, as the majority does, to recidivism statutes.
Ante, at 9. In that context, we have distinguished between taking prior
crimes into account as an aggravating factor in penalizing the conduct
before the court versus doing so to punish for the earlier crimes. Ibid.
But if enhancing a penalty for a present crime because of prior conduct
that has already been punished is permissible, it is certainly proper to
enhance a penalty because the conduct before the court, which has
never been punished, injured multiple victims.
4 PHILIP MORRIS USA v. WILLIAMS
STEVENS, J., dissenting
statewide should not include consideration of the harm to
those “bystanders” as well as the harm to the individual
plaintiff. The Court endorses a contrary conclusion with
out providing us with any reasoned justification.
It is far too late in the day to argue that the Due Process
Clause merely guarantees fair procedure and imposes no
substantive limits on a State’s lawmaking power. See,
e.g., Moore v. East Cleveland, 431 U. S. 494, 544 (1977)
(White, J., dissenting); Poe v. Ullman, 367 U. S. 497, 540–
541 (1961) (Harlan, J., dissenting); Whitney v. California,
274 U. S. 357, 373 (1927) (Brandeis, J., concurring). It
remains true, however, that the Court should be “reluc
tant to expand the concept of substantive due process
because guideposts for responsible decisionmaking in this
unchartered area are scarce and open-ended.” Collins v.
Harker Heights, 503 U. S. 115, 125 (1992). Judicial re
straint counsels us to “exercise the utmost care whenever
we are asked to break new ground in this field.” Ibid.
Today the majority ignores that sound advice when it
announces its new rule of substantive law.
Essentially for the reasons stated in the opinion of the
Supreme Court of Oregon, I would affirm its judgment.
Cite as: 549 U. S. ____ (2007) 1
THOMAS, J., dissenting
SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES
_________________
No. 05–1256
_________________
PHILIP MORRIS USA, PETITIONER v. MAYOLA
WILLIAMS, PERSONAL REPRESENTATIVE OF THE
ESTATE OF JESSE D. WILLIAMS,
DECEASED
ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE SUPREME COURT OF
OREGON
[February 20, 2007]
JUSTICE THOMAS, dissenting.
I join JUSTICE GINSBURG’s dissent in full. I write sepa
rately to reiterate my view that “ ‘the Constitution does
not constrain the size of punitive damages awards.’ ” State
Farm Mut. Automobile Ins. Co. v. Campbell, 538 U. S. 408,
429–430 (2003) (THOMAS, J., dissenting) (quoting Cooper
Industries, Inc. v. Leatherman Tool Group, Inc., 532 U. S.
424, 443 (2001) (THOMAS, J., concurring)). It matters not
that the Court styles today’s holding as “procedural” be
cause the “procedural” rule is simply a confusing imple
mentation of the substantive due process regime this
Court has created for punitive damages. See Pacific Mut.
Life Ins. Co. v. Haslip, 499 U. S. 1, 26–27 (1991) (SCALIA,
J., concurring in judgment) (“In 1868 . . . punitive dam
ages were undoubtedly an established part of the Ameri
can common law of torts. It is . . . clear that no particular
procedures were deemed necessary to circumscribe a jury’s
discretion regarding the award of such damages, or their
amount”). Today’s opinion proves once again that this
Court’s punitive damages jurisprudence is “insusceptible
of principled application.” BMW of North America, Inc. v.
Gore, 517 U. S. 559, 599 (1996) (SCALIA, J., joined by
THOMAS, J., dissenting).
Cite as: 549 U. S. ____ (2007) 1
GINSBURG, J., dissenting
SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES
_________________
No. 05–1256
_________________
PHILIP MORRIS USA, PETITIONER v. MAYOLA
WILLIAMS, PERSONAL REPRESENTATIVE OF THE
ESTATE OF JESSE D. WILLIAMS,
DECEASED
ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE SUPREME COURT OF
OREGON
[February 20, 2007]
JUSTICE GINSBURG, with whom JUSTICE SCALIA and
JUSTICE THOMAS join, dissenting.
The purpose of punitive damages, it can hardly be de
nied, is not to compensate, but to punish. Punish for
what? Not for harm actually caused “strangers to the
litigation,” ante, at 5, the Court states, but for the repre
hensibility of defendant’s conduct, ante, at 7–8. “[C]onduct
that risks harm to many,” the Court observes, “is likely
more reprehensible than conduct that risks harm to only a
few.” Ante, at 9. The Court thus conveys that, when
punitive damages are at issue, a jury is properly in
structed to consider the extent of harm suffered by others
as a measure of reprehensibility, but not to mete out
punishment for injuries in fact sustained by nonparties.
Ante, at 7–9. The Oregon courts did not rule otherwise.
They have endeavored to follow our decisions, most re
cently in BMW of North America, Inc. v. Gore, 517 U. S.
559 (1996), and State Farm Mut. Automobile Ins. Co. v.
Campbell, 538 U. S. 408 (2003), and have “deprive[d] [no
jury] of proper legal guidance,” ante, at 7. Vacation of the
Oregon Supreme Court’s judgment, I am convinced, is
unwarranted.
2 PHILIP MORRIS USA v. WILLIAMS
GINSBURG, J., dissenting
The right question regarding reprehensibility, the Court
acknowledges, ante, at 8, would train on “the harm that
Philip Morris was prepared to inflict on the smoking pub
lic at large.” Ibid. (quoting 340 Ore. 35, 51, 127 P. 3d
1165, 1175 (2006)). See also 340 Ore., at 55, 127 P. 3d, at
1177 (“[T]he jury, in assessing the reprehensibility of
Philip Morris’s actions, could consider evidence of similar
harm to other Oregonians caused (or threatened) by the
same conduct.” (emphasis added)). The Court identifies no
evidence introduced and no charge delivered inconsistent
with that inquiry.
The Court’s order vacating the Oregon Supreme Court’s
judgment is all the more inexplicable considering that
Philip Morris did not preserve any objection to the charges
in fact delivered to the jury, to the evidence introduced at
trial, or to opposing counsel’s argument. The sole objec
tion Philip Morris preserved was to the trial court’s re
fusal to give defendant’s requested charge number 34. See
id., at 54, 127 P. 3d, at 1176. The proposed instruction
read in pertinent part:
“If you determine that some amount of punitive
damages should be imposed on the defendant, it will
then be your task to set an amount that is appropri
ate. This should be such amount as you believe is
necessary to achieve the objectives of deterrence and
punishment. While there is no set formula to be ap
plied in reaching an appropriate amount, I will now
advise you of some of the factors that you may wish to
consider in this connection.
“(1) The size of any punishment should bear a reason
able relationship to the harm caused to Jesse Wil
liams by the defendant’s punishable misconduct. Al
though you may consider the extent of harm suffered
by others in determining what that reasonable rela
tionship is, you are not to punish the defendant for
Cite as: 549 U. S. ____ (2007) 3
GINSBURG, J., dissenting
the impact of its alleged misconduct on other persons,
who may bring lawsuits of their own in which other
juries can resolve their claims and award punitive
damages for those harms, as such other juries see fit.
. . . . .
“(2) The size of the punishment may appropriately re
flect the degree of reprehensibility of the defendant’s
conduct—that is, how far the defendant has departed
from accepted societal norms of conduct.” App. 280a.
Under that charge, just what use could the jury properly
make of “the extent of harm suffered by others”? The
answer slips from my grasp. A judge seeking to enlighten
rather than confuse surely would resist delivering the
requested charge.
The Court ventures no opinion on the propriety of the
charge proposed by Philip Morris, though Philip Morris
preserved no other objection to the trial proceedings.
Rather than addressing the one objection Philip Morris
properly preserved, the Court reaches outside the bounds
of the case as postured when the trial court entered its
judgment. I would accord more respectful treatment to
the proceedings and dispositions of state courts that
sought diligently to adhere to our changing, less than
crystalline precedent.
* * *
For the reasons stated, and in light of the abundant
evidence of “the potential harm [Philip Morris’] conduct
could have caused,” ante, at 6 (emphasis deleted), I would
affirm the decision of the Oregon Supreme Court.