Top Court Dismisses Allegations Against the Tobacco Industry

After 40 years of smoking approximately one pack of cigarettes per day, Norma Rose sued the tobacco industry, filing a product liability claim, which argued that producers should use less tar and nicotine in their products. A lower New York State Court ruled in favor of Rose and her husband a while back, but now the Court of Appeals rejected their claim with a 6 to 1 decision, and ruled in favor of the companies.

"A strong argument can be made that, when the pleasure they give smokers is balanced against the harm they do, regular cigarettes are worse than useless. But it is still lawful for people to buy and smoke regular cigarettes, and for the cigarette companies to sell them," the Court ruling says.

"To hold, as plaintiffs ask, that every sale of regular cigarettes exposes the manufacturer to tort liability would amount to a judicial ban on the product. If regular cigarettes are to be banned, that should be done by legislative bodies, not courts," it adds.

The Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp, now a part of R.J. Reynolds Inc, along with Philip Morris USA, currently included in Philip Morris International Inc., are the two companies that were sued by Rose and her husband, Leonard. The lower court that processed their request granted them some $3.42 million as compensation for their problems, and ordered that the producers paid $17.1 million in punitive damage.

The Appellate Division now reversed the decision and found in favor of the companies. During the appeal, Norma Rose died, but the trial went on with her husband pointing the finger. The family's lawyers appealed the new decision, saying that they managed to successfully prove that light cigarettes inflicted the same amount of damage as regular ones.

During the previous trial, a jury found that Phillip Morris and American Tobacco had designed their cigarette packs in a flawed manner, not providing the required information on the pack in a clearly visible section.