Court denies damages for widow of smoker, says tobacco company's job was to make money

MSNBC International ^ | Sept. 10, 2001 | AP

[rebdov]

Court denies damages for widow of smoker, says tobacco company's job was to make money

ORLEANS, France, Sept. 10 — An appeals court denied a request Monday for damages by the widow of a three-pack-a-day smoker, ruling that it was the state-owned tobacco company's job to make money for the government.

       The tobacco company, Seita, ''was not unaware of the correlation between smoking and the risk of cancer, notably to the lungs,'' the court said. But the court said Seita's status as a state-run company did not permit it to ''make this information known to the public.''
       ''It's extraordinary,'' said Francis Caballero, lawyer for Lucette Gourlain, whose 49-year-old husband, Richard, died of cancer. She had sought $414,000 from Seita, the company that makes Gauloise and Gitane cigarettes.
       ''Under the pretext that Seita existed only to bring in taxes for the state, it has no duty to inform?'' the lawyer asked rhetorically. He called the decision a ''total defeat'' not only for his client but for public health, and said he would file a new appeal.
       A lower court ruled in December 1999 that Seita was partially to blame for Gourlain's death. But it said Gourlain himself also bore responsibility for failing to quit smoking after a law warning consumers about the dangers of smoking was introduced in 1976.
       The Altadis Group, Seita's parent company following its merger with Spanish tobacco giant Tabacalera, hailed the ruling, noting the group has emerged unscathed from trials in France, Spain and Poland.
       The appeals court has ''confirmed that consumers have long had information on the risks linked to tobacco consumption and that no one can hide his individual responsibility,'' Altadis said in a statement.
       Gourlain began smoking at age 13. When he died, he had cancer in both lungs and his tongue.
       In the 1999 ruling, the lower court held Seita entirely responsible between 1963-69, when Gourlain was a minor. It found that the company carried 60 percent of the responsibility from 1969 to 1976, when the law on warning consumers was introduced.
       Thereafter, Gourlain alone was responsible, the court said.
       The Finance Ministry, which oversaw Seita at the time, was advised of the need to inform smokers of the risks but did nothing. Seita could not proceed on its own, the appeals court said in a 30-page ruling.
       (Copyright 2001 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

	© 2001 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

[rebdov]

Amazing! In France the government is honest enough to admit that the government's job in selling cigarettes is to make MONEY!!! How could we stupid Americans be so dishonest?!! If the French can admit it, we can't???

[A Ruckus of Dogs]

Thereafter, Gourlain alone was responsible, the court said.

Lo! The French display a wisdom our legal system hasn't caught on yet. That people are responsible for their own stupidity!

[Tacis]

The widows of our dead smokers whine that "the tobacco company made an addict of dear Herbert," and "forced him to smoke." Our smokers are smart enough to know that they are not addicted, that there is no causal relationship between smoking and death, and that smoking is even better for the non-smoker who are lucky enough to be in the same bar with the smoker. Geez, if our brave lawyers ever left the side of our poor, badly treated smokers, no one would side with them. Cancer of the tongue and both lungs? Imagine the painful death he must have had. Imagine the effect on his wife and family! Our smokers and their widows can take it because they KNOW there is no relationship between that lovely smoking and the painful death!