Jump to full article: Bloomberg News, 2009-10-19
Author: Andrew M. Harris
Intro: Philip Morris USA can be sued by cancer-free smokers seeking a court order that the company pay for medical monitoring for signs of the illness, the highest court in Massachusetts ruled.
Answering two state-law questions referred to it by a federal court where the smokers proposed a group lawsuit is pending, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court today ruled that the long-term yet cancer-free smokers can pursue their monitoring claim according to state law.
“We must adapt to the growing recognition that exposure to toxic substances and radiation may cause substantial injury which should be compensable even if the full effects are not immediately apparent,” the high court said.
Philip Morris USA, the maker of Marlboro cigarettes, is a unit of Richmond, Virginia-based Altria Group Inc. In a statement issued by an in-house attorney, the company disagreed with the court’s findings.
The smokers’ suit was filed in 2006 by Massachusetts resident Kathleen Donovan and two other people living in the state.
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