Jurors awarded Betty Bullock, 64, of Newport Beach, $750,000 in economic damages and $100,000 for pain and suffering. Bullock started smoking when she was 17 and was diagnosed with lung cancer last year. It has since spread to her liver.

A second phase of the trial is scheduled to begin Oct. 1 to determine punitive damages.

William S. Ohlemeyer, Philip Morris' vice president and associate general counsel, said the company had no comment on the verdict pending the completion of the trial's second phase.

In a shift from its strategy in earlier civil cases, Philip Morris did not defend its past actions. Instead, the company turned the spotlight on Bullock and her decision to smoke.

"If she had stopped smoking .... even in the 1980s, she would not have lung cancer today," Peter Bleakley, the attorney representing Philip Morris, told jurors at the start of the trial in August.

Bullock's lawyer, Michael Piuze, argued that Philip Morris concealed the dangers of cigarettes with a widespread disinformation campaign that began in the 1950s.

Last year, Piuze won a historic $3 billion jury verdict against Philip Morris for another client. A judge reduced the award to $100 million, which Philip Morris is in the process of appealing.

Piuze said he is looking forward to the punitive phase of the Bullock case. She is in the late stages of lung cancer, which has spread to her liver.

"She is happy she has survived long enough to see justice," Piuze said.

The case has drawn extra interest because it follows a state Supreme Court ruling that grants cigarette makers a new window of immunity. The Aug. 5 decision said most statements and acts by the tobacco companies between 1988 and 1998 cannot be used as evidence against them because of a state law, which was later repealed.

That window covers tobacco executives' testimony, given to Congress in 1994, that their product was not addictive.

Thursday's verdict shows there remains sufficient evidence to convict tobacco companies, said Edward L. Sweda, senior attorney at the Tobacco Control Resource Center at Northeastern University in Boston.