Mealey's ( April 22, 2026, 10:56 AM EDT) -- BOSTON — Attorneys for Philip Morris USA Inc. (PM) urged the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court to order a new trial for a smoker’s estate based on a jury’s “excessive” $1 billion punitive damages award and to consider if such trials should be bifurcated, while justices asked if the trial court’s reduction of the punitive damages to $56 million by remittitur was already a sufficient remedy (Armand Fontaine v. Philip Morris USA, Inc., No. SJC-13778, Mass. Sup. Jud.)....