Contingencies (Tables)

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 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:

(in millions)	2021		2020		2019
Accrued liability for tobacco and health and certain other litigation items at beginning of period	$	9	$	14	$	112
Pre-tax charges for:
Tobacco and health litigation	83		79		72
Agreement to resolve shareholder class action (1)	90		—		—
Related interest costs	9		4		5
Payments	(100)		(88)		(175)
Accrued liability for tobacco and health and certain other litigation items at end of period	$	91	$	9	$	14

(1) See Shareholder Class Action and Shareholder Derivative Lawsuits below for a discussion of the shareholder class action case and related settlement.

The table below lists the number of certain tobacco-related cases pending in the U.S. against PM USA and/or Altria at December 31:

	2021	2020	2019
Individual Smoking and Health Cases (1)	176	148	104
Health Care Cost Recovery Actions (2)	1	1	1
E-vapor Cases (3)	3,296	1,563	101
Other Tobacco-Related Cases (4)	3	3	4

(1) Includes as of December 31, 2021, 18 cases filed in Illinois, 17 cases filed in New Mexico, 42 cases filed in Massachusetts and 67 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 as of December 31, 2021, 53 class action lawsuits, 2,795 individual lawsuits and 448 “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 as of December 31, 2021, 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	Appeal by defendant to Third District Court of Appeal pending.
Garcia	May 2021	PM USA	Miami-Dade	$6 million	Mistrial	Appeals by plaintiff and 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	Appeals 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 petition for review to the Florida Supreme Court pending.
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 petition for review to the Florida Supreme Court pending.
Holliman	February 2019	PM USA	Miami-Dade	$3 million	$0	Appeal by defendant 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)
(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. Prentice is discussed below in Engle Progeny Appellate Issues.

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
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’ petition for review to the Florida Supreme Court pending.
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. (2)
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 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.

(3) PM USA is not a defendant in Prentice. Prentice is discussed below in Engle Progeny Appellate Issues.

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 Jordan, in January 2022, the Florida First District Court of Appeals affirmed the fee award. 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).