Cigarette Maker Wins Connecticut Ruling

Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp. said Connecticut Superior Court Judge Samuel Sferrazza ruled the cigarette maker is not responsible for the death of a longtime smoker.

The family of Arlene DuJack had claimed the British American Tobacco unit makes a defective and unreasonably dangerous product and should be forced to pay damages.

The judge decided that cigarettes are not a defective product under Connecticut law, the cigarette maker said.

DuJack, who lived in Killingly, Conn., died in 1999 of lung cancer after having smoked Kool cigarettes for 26 years.

Brown & Williamson and other U.S. tobacco companies are awaiting a Wheeling, W.Va., jury’s verdict on whether they must provide free medical checkups for 250,000 healthy smokers in the state. The jury started deliberations in that case Tuesday.