Jury Awards $81 Million to Family of Cancer Victim.

The Williams family, who sought $101 million, alleged the company knew its cigarettes could cause cancer. A jury ordered a cigarette maker to pay a record $81 million Tuesday to the family of a man who died of lung cancer after smoking Marlboros for four decades. It was the biggest verdict ever won by an individual in a smoking liability case. The court victory by the wife and children of J. Williams, who died in 1997, was the second major hit against Philip Morris this year. A San Francisco jury awarded $51.5 million last month to a Marlboro smoker who has inoperable lung cancer. Although no similar verdict against the tobacco industry has survived on appeal, Wall Street analysts were watching the Portland case closely to see if public opinion had turned.