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Supreme Judicial Court Case Summaries: May 29, 2006. ($$) 

Where a Superior Court judge dismissed a wrongful death action which (1) was brought against a cigarette manufacturer and (2) was predicated on breach of the warranty of merchantability, we hold that the dismissal was improper and reverse it.

SJC's comments

"We determine in this case whether a cigarette manufacturer in a wrongful death action predicated on breach of the warranty of merchantability may assert as an affirmative defense that the decedent smoker's use of cigarettes was 'unreasonable.' See Correia v. Firestone Tire and Rubber Co., 388 Mass. 342, 356 (1983) (in warranty liability action, 'the user's negligence does not prevent recovery except when heunreasonably uses a product that he knows to be defective and dangerous') (Correia defense).

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