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Excerpts from SECONDHAND SMOKE LAWSUIT REINSTATED

By Katharine Webster, Associated Press [05/29/98]

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) -- Six tobacco companies can be sued over the lung cancer death of a nonsmoker exposed to secondhand smoke, the state's highest court ruled Friday.

The state Supreme Court reinstated the lawsuit filed by Roxanne Ramsey-Buckingham, who died in 1996, a year after suing the cigarette makers for unspecified damages.

Ramsey-Buckingham, 44, claimed in her suit that tobacco companies either knew or should have known their products could be harmful to nonsmokers.

The high court allowed the lawsuit to go forward on that point, but upheld a lower court ruling that dismissed her other claim -- that cigarettes are inherently defective because they are dangerous.

A tobacco law expert said it is the first time any state or federal appeals court has spelled out the legal basis for a secondhand smoke claim.

``It provides a legal road map for how victims of environmental tobacco smoke can sue and recover from tobacco companies,'' said Northeastern University law professor Richard Daynard, who advises people suing the tobacco industry. ``I think as a practical matter this is going to set the standard nationally.''

The tobacco industry has never lost a secondhand smoke lawsuit. However, the industry reached a $349 million settlement last year of a class-action lawsuit brought by flight attendants who claimed they were harmed by exposure to secondhand smoke on flights.

Ramsey-Buckingham said she never smoked but spent much of her life in a cloud of smoke as her father, other relatives, friends and co-workers puffed away.

The Supreme Court's ruling sends the suit to the lower court for trial.

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