Jump to full article: Findlaw, 2006-09-29
Author: JOE HYLKEMA, Andrews Publications Correspondent
Intro: A Missouri appeals court has affirmed a $1 million damages award against Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp. and Philip Morris USA Inc. in a lawsuit alleging the companies' cigarettes are defectively designed.
The Missouri Court of Appeals' Western District upheld the award in favor of plaintiff Michael Thompson, rejecting the cigarette makers' argument that the plaintiff had to submit a feasible alternative design in order to prevail in the case.
Thompson sued the tobacco giants in the Jackson County Circuit Court in 2000, seeking damages for the defendants' alleged failure to warn of the hazards of smoking.
He also claimed the cigarettes were defective and negligently designed. . . .
The appellate court panel rejected all of these arguments.
The panel ruled that the plaintiff was not obligated to submit a feasible alternative cigarette design that would have prevented his injury, explaining that the defendants "misstate the law in Missouri as to strict tort liability and cite no Missouri authority that alternative design is a requirement in a negligence claim."
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