Profile: Lowell Bassett: Not just a numbers game

For economist Lowell Bassett, being involved in a court case isn't just about analyzing the cold, hard numbers.

"I always feel sorry for the people who are caught up in these things. They may wait 10 years" for resolution, said Bassett, who provided expert testimony in a record-setting case against cigarette maker Philip Morris Inc.

On March 30 a jury in Multnomah County, Ore., awarded a whopping $81 million, including $79.5 million in punitive damages, to the estate of Jesse Williams, a Portland man who smoked for 42 years and died of lung cancer. (Read the full story in the March 31 issue of The Oregonian.) The verdict, the nation's highest for an individual tobacco injury case, came on the heels of a California decision that awarded $51 million to an ex-smoker with lung cancer.

Bassett said the outcomes of both cases surprised him.

"The last two cases seem to be a substantial departure from what jurors have felt in the past about tobacco litigation," he said. "I can only surmise that documents that have come to light in the past few years seem to have convinced them that the tobacco companies have some responsibility that jurors didn't seem to feel they had before."

Recent anti-tobacco litigation has unveiled internal documents indicating the tobacco industry deceived consumers about the hazards of smoking.

In the Williams case, Bassett testified about Philip Morris Inc.'s sales, revenues, profits and net worth, figures he derived by scrutinizing annual reports and stock-market values of the parent company, Philip Morris Companies Inc., and other companies. The defendant disputed his $17 billion net-worth figure, offering instead a $3 billion balance-sheet net worth.

Either way, said Bassett, the numbers are extremely large for a jury to consider in deciding punitive damages.

Bassett also testified in another recent high-profile Oregon case, in which he calculated the lifelong financial needs of a catastrophic-injury victim, including the substantial amount of federal income taxes the man will pay on interest earned from investing his damage award.

Retired after 27 years as a University of Washington professor, Bassett, 61, works full time at the Seattle consulting firm he formed with two of his university colleagues in the early 1970s. Among articles he has had published is "The Use of Economists in Personal Injury Actions," in Vol. 1993, No. 1 of the Defense Research Institute publication The Economic Expert in Litigation.

In his free time, Bassett enjoys skiing in British Columbia and windsurfing in Oregon. He and his wife have four children and five grandchildren.

Contact Lowell Bassett at:
Bassett, Parks and Silberberg
1107 NE 45th St., Ste. 415
Seattle, Wash. 98105
Phone: (206) 633-4968, Fax: (206) 633-5035