Contingencies (Tables)

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2019

Commitments and Contingencies Disclosure [Abstract]

Schedule of Contingencies

The changes in Altria’s accrued liability for tobacco and health litigation items, including related interest costs, for the periods specified below are as follows:

(in millions)	2019				2018			2017
Accrued liability for tobacco and health litigation items at beginning of year (1)	$	112			$	106		$	47
Pre-tax charges for:
Tobacco and health litigation	72			(1)(2)	113			72
Related interest costs	5				18			8
Payments (1)	(175		)	(3)	(125		)	(21		)
Accrued liability for tobacco and health litigation items at end of period (1)	$	14			$	112		$	106

⁽¹⁾ Includes amounts related to the costs of implementing the corrective communications remedy related to the Federal Government’s Lawsuit discussed below.

⁽²⁾ Includes approximately $22 million related to pre-trial resolution of approximately 300 tobacco and health cases.

⁽³⁾ Includes approximately $20 million in payments related to above-mentioned pre-trial resolution of approximately 300 tobacco and health cases (the remaining approximately $2 million was accrued but not paid in 2019).

Currently Pending Engle Cases with Accrued Liabilities (rounded to nearest $ million)
Plaintiff	Verdict Date	Defendant(s)	Court	Compensatory Damages (All Defendants)	Punitive Damages (PM USA)	Appeal Status	Accrual (1)
Berger (Cote)	September 2014	PM USA	Federal Court - Middle District of Florida	$6 million	$21 million	The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated the punitive and compensatory damages awards and remanded the case to the district court. PM USA’s challenge to the punitive damages award was denied by the district court. PM USA’s appeal to the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals is pending.	$6 million accrual in the fourth quarter of 2018

⁽¹⁾ Accrual amounts include interest and associated costs, if applicable. For cases with multiple defendants, if any, accrual amounts reflect the portion of compensatory damages PM USA believes it will have to pay if the case is ultimately decided in plaintiff’s favor after taking into account any portion potentially payable by the other defendant(s).

Other 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
Cuddihee	January 2020	PM USA	Duval	$3 million	$0	Trial court entered final judgment. Defendant to file one or more post-trial motions.
Rintoul (Caprio)	November 2019	PM USA and R.J. Reynolds	Broward	$9 million ($5 million PM USA)	$74 million	Defendants’ post-trial motions pending.
Gloger	November 2019	PM USA and R.J. Reynolds	Miami-Dade	$15 million ($5 million PM USA)	$11 million	Appeal by defendants to Third District Court of Appeal pending.
McCall	March 2019	PM USA	Broward	<$1 million (<$1 million PM USA)	<$1 million	New trial ordered on punitive damages.
Neff	March 2019	PM USA and R.J. Reynolds	Broward	$4 million	$2 million	Appeals by plaintiff and defendants to Fourth District Court of Appeal pending.
Frogel	March 2019	PM USA	Palm Beach	<$1 million (<$1 million PM USA)	$0	Appeals by plaintiff and defendant to Fourth District Court of Appeal pending.
Mahfuz	February 2019	PM USA and R.J. Reynolds	Broward	$12 million	$10 million	Appeals by plaintiff and defendants to Fourth District Court of Appeal pending.
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	Appeals by defendant and plaintiff to Third District Court of Appeal pending.
Kaplan	July 2018	PM USA and R.J. Reynolds	Broward	$2 million	$2 million	Appeals by defendants and plaintiff to Fourth District Court of Appeal pending.
Landi	June 2018	PM USA and R.J. Reynolds	Broward	$8 million	$5 million	Appeals by plaintiff and defendants to Fourth District Court of Appeal pending.
Theis	May 2018	PM USA and R.J. Reynolds	Sarasota	$7 million	$10 million	Second District Court of Appeal affirmed judgment. Defendants’ post-appeal motion pending.
Freeman	March 2018	PM USA	Alachua	$4 million	$0	First District Court of Appeal reversed judgment against PM USA. Plaintiff petitioned Florida Supreme Court for review. This case is currently stayed.
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. Defendant petitioned Florida Supreme Court for review.

Other 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
Santoro	March 2017	PM USA, R.J. Reynolds and Liggett Group	Broward	$2 million	$0	Trial court set aside punitive damages award; appeals by plaintiff and defendants to Fourth District Court of Appeal pending.
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 pending.
Kerrivan	October 2014	PM USA and R.J. Reynolds	Federal Court - Middle District of Florida	$16 million	$16 million	Appeal by defendants to U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit pending.
Harris	July 2014	PM USA, R.J. Reynolds and Lorillard	Federal Court - Middle District of Florida	$2 million (<$ 1 million PM USA)	$0	Appeals by plaintiff and defendants to U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit pending.

⁽¹⁾ PM USA’s portion of the compensatory damages award is noted parenthetically where the court has ruled that comparative fault applies.

Engle Cases Concluded Within Past 12 Months (rounded to nearest $ million)
Plaintiff	Verdict Date	Defendant(s)	Court	Accrual Date	Payment Amount (if any)	Payment Date
Alvarez Del Real	September 2019	PM USA	Miami-Dade	Fourth quarter of 2019	<$1 million	October 2019
Zingaro	May 2019	PM USA and R.J. Reynolds	Broward	Third quarter of 2019	<$1 million	October 2019
Bryant	December 2017	PM USA	Escambia	Second quarter of 2019	<$1 million	July 2019
Wallace	October 2017	PM USA and R.J. Reynolds	Brevard	Second quarter of 2019	$26 million	May 2019
J. Brown	February 2017	PM USA and R.J. Reynolds	Pinellas	First quarter of 2019	$4 million	April 2019
L. Martin	May 2017	PM USA	Miami-Dade	First quarter of 2019	$2 million	April 2019
Danielson	November 2015	PM USA	Escambia	First quarter of 2019	$3 million	March 2019
S. Martin	November 2016	PM USA and R.J. Reynolds	Broward	First quarter of 2019	$5 million	March 2019
Searcy	April 2013	PM USA and R.J. Reynolds	Federal Court - Middle District of Florida	Third quarter of 2018	$2 million	March 2019
Boatright	November 2014	PM USA and Liggett Group	Polk	Second quarter of 2018	$42 million	March 2019
M. Brown	May 2015	PM USA	Duval	Second quarter of 2018	$8 million	March 2019
Jordan(1)	August 2015	PM USA	Duval	Second quarter of 2018	$11 million	March 2019
Pardue	December 2016	PM USA and R.J. Reynolds	Alachua	Second and Third quarters of 2018	$11 million	March 2019
McKeever	February 2015	PM USA	Broward	Fourth quarter of 2017	$21 million	March 2019
Boulter	December 2018	PM USA and R.J. Reynolds	Lee	Fourth quarter of 2018	<$1 million	January 2019

⁽¹⁾ The trial court also awarded plaintiff approximately $4 million in fees and costs, which PM USA has appealed.

The table below lists the number of certain tobacco-related cases pending in the U.S. against PM USA and, in some instances, Altria as of December 31, 2019, 2018 and 2017:

	2019	2018	2017
Individual Smoking and Health Cases (1)	104	100	92
Health Care Cost Recovery Actions (2)	1	1	1
E-vapor Cases(3)	101	—	—
Other Tobacco-Related Cases(4)	4	4	7

⁽¹⁾ Includes 21 cases filed in Massachusetts and 43 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 1,472 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. In March 2018, 923 of these cases were voluntarily dismissed without prejudice.

⁽²⁾ See Health Care Cost Recovery Litigation - Federal Government’s Lawsuit below.

⁽³⁾ Includes 22 class action lawsuits, 76 individual lawsuits, two state or local government lawsuits and one lawsuit filed by a school district relating to JUUL e-vapor products. JUUL is an additional named defendant in each of these lawsuits.

⁽⁴⁾ For 2019, includes two inactive smoking and health cases alleging personal injury or seeking court-supervised programs or ongoing medical monitoring and purporting to be brought on behalf of a class of individual plaintiffs, including one case in which the aggregated claims of a number of individual plaintiffs are to be tried in a single proceeding, 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.