Smokers in Court

Court rules smokers may sue tobacco industry two years after developing related disease.
The Los Angeles Times (5/6, Dolan) reports, "Smokers may sue the tobacco industry once they develop a disease like lung cancer, even if they suffered different smoking-related ailments years earlier, the California Supreme Court ruled unanimously Thursday." In the case before the court, "Nikki Pooshs, a former smoker, was diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in 1989 and a couple of years later with periodontal disease," but she "did not sue the tobacco industry until she was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2003." Cigarette makers "argued that her suit should be dismissed because the timetable for suing began when she first discovered that smoking had injured her in 1989."
The San Francisco Chronicle (5/6, Egelko) reports, "A federal judge dismissed the suit, saying Pooshs' two-year clock had started running when she was diagnosed with a noncancerous lung disease in 1989." She had known that "both illnesses were smoking-related," the judge said. Pooshs "appealed to the Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, which then asked the state's high court, the top authority on California law, to interpret the timetables," and on Thursday, the justices "ruled unanimously that someone diagnosed with a new disease, not caused by previous illnesses, has two years to sue from the date of the diagnosis."