TOBACCO CO. SUED

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30347, 24 January 1964, Page 5

TOBACCO CO. SUED

Cancer Victim Claims I (N.Z. Press Assn—Copyright) SCRANTON j (Pennsylvania). January’ 21. A cancer victim has filed I suit against Philip Morris, | Inc., asking damages in : excess of three million dollars. charging the firm was liable for selling, “•*> unwholesome product.’’ The action was filed in United States Middle District Court on behalf of Andrew M. Fine, jun., aged 48. The suit stressed two basic theories it claimed acceptable to the courts. One was "negligence of the manufacturer in failing to have ascertained the dangerous propensities of tobacco as a cancer inducing product.” The other was the “implied warrant of the wholesomeness of the product.” Fine's lawyer, George Davis, of San Francisco, said the suit “is only the first of what may be thousands of similar suits.” It is believed to be the first major action against a tobacco company since the January 11 report by a Government scientific team relating cancer and cigarette smoking. The complaint said Fine started smoking Philip Morris cigarettes at the age of 15 and continued regularly and continuously until last February. He smoked one and a half to two packets a day until 1950 when he increased to about three packets a day. “Absolutely Liable” Davis, who has defended such persons as murderer Caryl Chessman and the German munitions manufacturer Alfred Krupp, said in the suit that under the implied warrant theory “no conscious culpability on the part of the defendant needs to be proved because the cigarette company is absolutely liable for falsely warranting its product as not inimical to health." It also accused the firm of alleging to represent to the public “that Philip Morris cigarettes and tobacco were endowed with the quality of goodness and mildness and that it was fit, safe, beneficial and proper to smoke Philip Morris cigarettes.” The suit contended that the firm marketed its wares as resulting in “enjoyment without any injury or damage to person or health particularly the respiratory system.” Fine was informed of a malignant carcinoma condition last May 30, 13 days after an exploratory operation of his chest. Stating that Fine has become incapacitated and unable to engage in normal occupation and economic pursuits, the action asks general damages of three million dollars and additional other damages “in an amount as yet unascertained.”