Louisiana Court Orders Trial on Tobacco Liability
Louisiana’s highest court has overturned a ruling by a lower court that relieved American Tobacco Co. of liability for a smoker’s cancer and ordered a trial to determine whether cigarettes are unreasonably dangerous.
The Supreme Court of Louisiana ruled late Friday that a lower court erred when it dismissed a lawsuit filed by Robert Gilboy, who has lung and brain cancer, without a trial.
“This is a spectacular victory for the plaintiffs,” said Richard Daynard, chairman of the Tobacco Products Liability Project at Northeastern University Law School in Boston.
The decision comes before arguments scheduled for this fall before the U.S. Supreme Court in a landmark cigarette liability case from New Jersey.
A key issue before the nation’s highest court will be whether a 1966 federal law mandating warnings on cigarette packages protects tobacco companies from claims that they failed to provide adequate notice of the hazards of smoking.
In the Louisiana case, the trial court had granted American Tobacco’s motion to dismiss the case on grounds that Gilboy had voluntarily accepted the risks of smoking. The decision was upheld by the state’s court of appeals.
But the state’s highest court said the ruling was a mistake because many questions still need to be answered.
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