Wilson Seeks Change in Tobacco Bill

Gov. Pete Wilson on Monday signaled his intent to sign legislation that would allow individuals charging that their health was impaired by smoking to sue the tobacco industry, which has been protected from such lawsuits for the last decade.

Wilson’s signature on the bill by Sen. Quentin L. Kopp (I-San Francisco)--expected in coming days--would end a liability shield that tobacco has enjoyed since a deal between legislators and lobbyists was mapped out at a Capitol restaurant in 1987.

But Wilson said Monday that before he signs the measure he wants Kopp to make a change that would retain the liability exemption for tobacco retailers and distributors.

“We don’t think the mom-and-pop Korean grocery store should be held liable for a product that they had no idea had negative health impacts,” said Wilson spokesman Sean Walsh.

Kopp said he is agreeable to the change “because it’s true the grocer doesn’t manufacture the poison stick.”

Once the amendments are adopted, the governor will sign the bill (SB 67) into law as long as no other changes are added by legislators, Walsh said.

The bill first goes to the Assembly, where the amendment will be incorporated into it and voted on. The bill then will go to the state Senate for concurrence in the change.

The Kopp measure was one of three--and the toughest--introduced in the Legislature this year aimed at dropping the protection from lawsuits that cigarette makers have enjoyed in California.

Wilson already signed one such bill by Assembly Speaker Cruz Bustamante (D-Fresno), which also allows lawsuits for smokers’ injuries but only by state and local governments claiming losses for treatment costs in public health programs.

A third measure by state Sen. Byron Sher (D-Stanford), still moving through the Legislature, is narrower. It would allow lawsuits by individuals claiming injury from secondhand smoke or on grounds of fraud, misrepresentation and conspiracy by tobacco companies.

Sher said he will shelve his bill if Kopp’s measure is enacted.

The legislation that erected the original legal protections, known as the “napkin deal” for the linen napkin it was drafted upon at Frank Fat’s restaurant, also shields such products as butter and castor oil from legal liability.

The rationale written into the law was that the health risks of consuming such products and from smoking were well known, and that the public consumed them at its own risk.

In the recent debates over the Kopp measure, supporters argued that not only did tobacco companies conceal the full extent of the dangers their products posed, but that California risked losing out in a major settlement with tobacco companies now being negotiated in Washington.

As part of the proposed settlement, states with laws on their books allowing lawsuits against the industry stand to share in a $4-billion fund used to pay damages.