Judge Ute Wolfe Lally of the New York Supreme Court for Nassau County has dismissed an individual smoking and health case brought against the former Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corporation, successor by merger to the American Tobacco Company (American).

In the suit, Selma Rosen claimed she became addicted to cigarettes after smoking American's Lucky Strike cigarettes for approximately four years in the late 1950s. Ms Rosen alleged that American failed to warn her of the health risks of smoking and designed an unreasonably dangerous product. Rosen then continued smoking other manufacturers' cigarettes for the next 35 years. Those manufacturers were not included in her suit, however.
In granting the motion for directed verdict, Justice Lally found the plaintiffs had offered insufficient evidence that Ms Rosen could not quit smoking and that, because of her indifference to warnings she later received regarding the health risks of smoking, an earlier warning about the risks of smoking would not have made any difference on her decision to smoke. (ci)