The world’s second largest cigarette manufacturer, British American Tobacco, expressed ”astonishment” on Thursday at an Italian court’s decision that it was responsible for the death of a lung cancer victim and must pay his heirs â,¬200 000.
Consumer and industry groups said the ruling was the first successful suit against a tobacco company in Europe, and could open the floodgates to a stream of other cases.
The judgement marked the climax of a 14-year-old campaign by a Florence University law professor, Marcello Stalteri, whose father, Mario, died of a lung tumour in 1991 aged 64. Professor Stalteri said his father, a 20-a-day smoker, was not made aware of the risks by the cigarette manufacturer.
He told the daily Corriere della Sera that taking on BAT had made him feel ”like a lonely third-division footballer up against Real Madrid”.
The first ruling, in 1997, went against him, but Wednesday’s judgement reversed that.
BAT Italia said in a statement it would take the case to Italy’s highest civil appeals tribunal, the court of cassation.
The lobby group Action on Smoking and Health (Ash) said on Thursday that while judgments had been made against cigarette manufacturers in the United States, the ruling was unprecedented in Europe.
”We know of people taking action in a number of European countries, but not of anyone successfully suing a tobacco company,” said Ash’s research manager, Amanda Sandford. ”The only case we are aware of where there has been a result was in Israel, and that was a class action, not an individual one.”
The judgement was handed down against the BAT subsidiary ETI, a state-owned company privatised and sold to the multinational two years ago. BAT’s lawyers argued that ETI, which only came into being in 1998, could not be held responsible for a condition that began to develop years before, at a time when the manufacture and sale of cigarettes in Italy was controlled by a state monopoly.
The ruling comes two months after the Italian authorities introduced strict curbs on smoking in bars, restaurants and other public spaces. Italy’s Health Minister, Girolamo Sirchia, welcomed the decision, saying consumers needed to be defended ”by means of information”.
A consumer association, Codacons, said the ruling could prompt a flood of other cases. It said more than 100 plaintiffs were poised to sue cigarette manufacturers over the death or illness of smokers who took up the habit before warnings were put on packets.
The association said the latest judgement also made it possible to consider a ”gigantic lawsuit for damages against ETI for the damage done to smokers”, adding that it would be seeking about â,¬100-billion to cover even those who were merely at risk of developing tumours as a result of having smoked.
The head of BAT Italia’s legal office, Alessandro Adotti, said the company was astonished by the ruling because it differed from all earlier decisions in Italy about the transfer of responsibility to ETI.
In Britain, Margaret McTear, whose husband, Alfred, died in 1993 aged 48, has brought a similar case under Scottish law. She is claiming £500 000, and has been waiting a judgement since early last year. – Guardian Unlimited Â