XML 47 R34.htm IDEA: XBRL DOCUMENT
v3.21.2

Contingencies (Tables) | 9 Months Ended
--- | ---
Sep. 30, 2021
Commitments and Contingencies Disclosure [Abstract] |
Schedule of Contingencies | The changes in Altria’s accrued liability for tobacco and health and certain other litigation items, including related interest costs, for the periods specified below are as follows:
| For the Nine Months Ended September 30, |  | For the Three Months Ended September 30, |  |
(in millions) | 2021 |  | 2020 |  | 2021 |  | 2020 |  |
Accrued liability for tobacco and health and certain other litigation items at beginning of period | $ | 9 |  |  | $ | 14 |  |  | $ | — |  |  | $ | 22 |  |  |
Pre-tax charges for: |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
Tobacco and health and certain other litigation (1) | 142 |  |  | 73 |  |  | 99 |  |  | 34 |  |  |
Related interest costs | 6 |  |  | 3 |  |  | 6 |  |  | — |  |  |
Payments (1) | (60) |  |  | (81) |  |  | (8) |  |  | (47) |  |  |
Accrued liability for tobacco and health and certain other litigation items at end of period | $ | 97 |  |  | $ | 9 |  |  | $ | 97 |  |  | $ | 9 |  |  |
(1) Includes amounts related to certain other litigation and pre-trial resolution of certain tobacco and health cases. The table below lists the number of certain tobacco-related cases pending in the U.S. against PM USA and/or Altria as of October 25, 2021, October 27, 2020 and October 28, 2019:
| October 25, 2021 |  | October 27, 2020 |  | October 28, 2019
Individual Smoking and Health Cases (1) | 179 |  | 142 |  | 95
Health Care Cost Recovery Actions (2) | 1 |  | 1 |  | 1
E-vapor Cases (3) | 2,951 |  | 1,145 |  | —
Other Tobacco-Related Cases (4) | 3 |  | 4 |  | 4
(1) Includes 18 cases filed in Illinois, 17 cases filed in New Mexico, 40 cases filed in Massachusetts and 70 non-Engle cases filed in Florida. Does not include individual smoking and health cases brought by or on behalf of plaintiffs in Florida state and federal courts following the decertification of the Engle case (these Engle progeny cases are discussed below in Smoking and Health Litigation - Engle Class Action). Also does not include 1,471 cases brought by flight attendants seeking compensatory damages for personal injuries allegedly caused by exposure to environmental tobacco smoke (“ETS”). The flight attendants allege that they are members of an ETS smoking and health class action in Florida, which was settled in 1997 (Broin). The terms of the court-approved settlement in that case allowed class members to file individual lawsuits seeking compensatory damages, but prohibited them from seeking punitive damages. Class members were prohibited from filing individual lawsuits after 2000 under the court-approved settlement. (2) See Health Care Cost Recovery Litigation - Federal Government’s Lawsuit below. (3) Includes 53 class action lawsuits, 2,548 individual lawsuits and 350 “third party” lawsuits relating to JUUL e-vapor products, which include school districts, state and local government, tribal and healthcare organization lawsuits. JUUL is an additional named defendant in each of these lawsuits. The 53 class action lawsuits include 28 cases in the Northern District of California (“Multidistrict Litigation” or “MDL”) involving plaintiffs whose claims were previously included in other class action complaints but were refiled as separate stand-alone class actions for procedural and other reasons. (4) Includes one inactive smoking and health case alleging personal injury and purporting to be brought on behalf of a class of individual plaintiffs and two inactive class action lawsuits alleging that use of the terms “Lights” and “Ultra Lights” constitute deceptive and unfair trade practices, common law or statutory fraud, unjust enrichment, breach of warranty or violations of RICO. Currently Pending Engle Cases with Verdicts Against PM USA (rounded to nearest $ million)
Plaintiff | Verdict Date | Defendant(s) | Court | Compensatory Damages (1) | Punitive Damages (PM USA) | Appeal Status
Lipp | September 2021 | PM USA | Miami-Dade | $15 million | $28 million | Defendant’s post-trial motions denied. Defendant plans to appeal.
Garcia | May 2021 | PM USA | Miami-Dade | $3 million | Mistrial | Appeal by defendant to Third District Court of Appeal pending.
Duignan | February 2020 (2) | PM USA and R.J. Reynolds | Pinellas | $3 million | $12 million | Appeal by defendants to Second District Court of Appeal pending.
Cuddihee | January 2020 | PM USA | Duval | $3 million | $0 | Appeal by defendant to First District Court of Appeal pending.
Rintoul (Caprio) | November 2019 (2) | PM USA and R.J. Reynolds | Broward | $9 million | $74 million | Appeal by plaintiff and defendants to Fourth District Court of Appeal pending.
Gloger | November 2019 (2) | PM USA and R.J. Reynolds | Miami-Dade | $15 million | $11 million | Appeal by defendants to Third District Court of Appeal pending.
McCall | March 2019 | PM USA | Broward | <$1 million (<$1 million PM USA) | $0 | New trial ordered on punitive damages.
Neff | March 2019 | PM USA and R.J. Reynolds | Broward | $4 million | $2 million | Fourth District Court of Appeal reversed the judgment against defendants and remanded for a new trial. Plaintiff's motion for rehearing was denied.
Plaintiff | Verdict Date | Defendant(s) | Court | Compensatory Damages (1) | Punitive Damages (PM USA) | Appeal Status
Mahfuz | February 2019 | PM USA and R.J. Reynolds | Broward | $12 million | $10 million | Fourth District Court of Appeal reversed the judgment against defendants and remanded for a new trial. Plaintiff's motion for rehearing was denied.
Holliman | February 2019 | PM USA | Miami-Dade | $3 million | $0 | Defendant’s appeal to Third District Court of Appeal pending.
Chadwell | September 2018 | PM USA | Miami-Dade | $2 million | $0 | Third District Court of Appeal affirmed the compensatory damages award. PM USA petitioned Florida Supreme Court for review. Case stayed pending Florida Supreme Court decision in Prentice.(3)
Kaplan | July 2018 | PM USA and R.J. Reynolds | Broward | $2 million | $2 million | Fourth District Court of Appeal affirmed the verdict and reaffirmed the verdict on rehearing. Defendants sought review of the decision before the Florida Supreme Court and the court stayed the case pending its decision in Sheffield.(3)
R. Douglas | November 2017 | PM USA | Duval | <$1 million | $0 | Awaiting entry of final judgment by the trial court.
Sommers | April 2017 | PM USA | Miami-Dade | $1 million | $0 | Third District Court of Appeal affirmed compensatory damages award and granted new trial on punitive damages. Florida Supreme Court denied PM USA’s petition for review of the Third District Court of Appeal’s decision. PM USA paid approximately $1 million for the compensatory damages award and awaits the new trial on punitive damages.(4) The trial court stayed the new trial on punitive damages pending Florida Supreme Court’s decision in Sheffield.(3)
Cooper (Blackwood) | September 2015 | PM USA and R.J. Reynolds | Broward | $5 million (<$1 million PM USA) | $0 | Fourth District Court of Appeal affirmed judgment and granted a new trial on punitive damages.
D. Brown | January 2015 | PM USA | Federal Court - Middle District of Florida | $8 million | $9 million | Appeal by defendant to U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit stayed pending Florida Supreme Court decision in Prentice.(3)
(1) PM USA’s portion of the compensatory damages award is noted parenthetically where the court has ruled that comparative fault applies. (2) Plaintiff’s verdict following a retrial of an initial verdict in favor of plaintiff. (3) PM USA is not a defendant in Prentice or Sheffield. Prentice and Sheffield are discussed below in Engle Progeny Appellate Issues. (4) Plaintiff was granted an award of approximately $3 million in fees, costs and interest that PM USA appealed. The Florida Third District Court of Appeals affirmed the award and PM USA paid the award amount in March 2021. Engle Cases Concluded Within Past 12 Months (1) (rounded to nearest $ million)
Plaintiff | Verdict Date | Defendant(s) | Court | Accrual Date | Payment Amount (if any) | Payment Date
Berger (Cote) | September 2014 | PM USA | Federal Court - Middle District of Florida | Fourth quarter of 2018 and first quarter of 2021 | $29 million | February 2021
Santoro | March 2017 | PM USA, R.J. Reynolds and Liggett Group | Broward | Second quarter of 2020 and first quarter of 2021 | $1 million | January 2021
(1) In six cases in which PM USA paid the judgments more than a year ago, Naugle, Gore, M. Brown, Jordan, Theis and Landi, plaintiffs were awarded approximately $8 million, $2 million, $8 million, $4 million, $1 million and $3 million in fees and costs, respectively. PM USA has appealed in all of these cases, except Theis and Landi. In M. Brown, in March 2021 the Florida First District Court of Appeals affirmed the fee award and reversed the pre-judgment interest award and, in April 2021, PM USA paid $8.2 million in satisfaction of the fee award and post-judgment interest. In Theis, PM USA paid $1 million in satisfaction of fees and costs in May 2021 and, in Landi, PM USA paid approximately $1.5 million in satisfaction of fees, costs and interest in July 2021 (R.J. Reynolds paid approximately $1.5 million of the approximately $3 million award).

X
- References No definition available. + Details
Name: | us-gaap_CommitmentsAndContingenciesDisclosureAbstract
Namespace Prefix: | us-gaap_
Data Type: | xbrli:stringItemType
Balance Type: | na
Period Type: | duration

X
- Definition Tabular disclosure of the loss contingencies that were reported in the period or disclosed as of the balance sheet date. + References Reference 1: http://fasb.org/us-gaap/role/ref/legacyRef -Publisher FASB -Name Accounting Standards Codification -Topic 450 -SubTopic 20 -Section 50 -Paragraph 6 -URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=121557415&loc=d3e14472-108349 Reference 2: http://fasb.org/us-gaap/role/ref/legacyRef -Publisher FASB -Name Accounting Standards Codification -Topic 450 -SubTopic 20 -Section 50 -Paragraph 1 -URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=121557415&loc=d3e14326-108349 Reference 3: http://fasb.org/us-gaap/role/ref/legacyRef -Publisher FASB -Name Accounting Standards Codification -Topic 450 -SubTopic 20 -Section 50 -Paragraph 5 -URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=121557415&loc=d3e14453-108349 Reference 4: http://fasb.org/us-gaap/role/ref/legacyRef -Publisher FASB -Name Accounting Standards Codification -Topic 450 -SubTopic 20 -Section 50 -Paragraph 10 -URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=121557415&loc=d3e14615-108349 Reference 5: http://fasb.org/us-gaap/role/ref/legacyRef -Publisher FASB -Name Accounting Standards Codification -Topic 460 -SubTopic 10 -Section 50 -Paragraph 2 -URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=124440162&loc=d3e12021-110248 Reference 6: http://fasb.org/us-gaap/role/ref/legacyRef -Publisher FASB -Name Accounting Standards Codification -Topic 450 -SubTopic 20 -Section 50 -Paragraph 3 -URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=121557415&loc=d3e14394-108349 Reference 7: http://fasb.org/us-gaap/role/ref/legacyRef -Publisher FASB -Name Accounting Standards Codification -Topic 450 -SubTopic 20 -Section 50 -Paragraph 4 -URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=121557415&loc=d3e14435-108349 Reference 8: http://fasb.org/us-gaap/role/ref/legacyRef -Publisher FASB -Name Accounting Standards Codification -Topic 450 -SubTopic 20 -Section 50 -Paragraph 9 -URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=121557415&loc=d3e14557-108349 Reference 9: http://fasb.org/us-gaap/role/ref/legacyRef -Publisher FASB -Name Accounting Standards Codification -Topic 460 -SubTopic 10 -Section 50 -Paragraph 3 -URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=124440162&loc=d3e12053-110248 + Details
Name: | us-gaap_ScheduleOfLossContingenciesByContingencyTextBlock
Namespace Prefix: | us-gaap_
Data Type: | dtr-types:textBlockItemType
Balance Type: | na
Period Type: | duration