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Excerpts from: Smoker's Widow Loses Court Appeal

By VERENA VON DERSCHAU, Associated Press Writer  Smoker's Widow Loses Court Appeal  [09/10/01]
 

  ORLEANS, France (AP) - A French appeals court turned down on
  Monday a request for damages from the widow of a three-pack-a-day
  smoker, upholding a ruling that blame for the death must be shared by
  the victim and a tobacco company.

  Lucette Gourlain had sought $414,000 from Seita, the tobacco
  company that makes the pungent Gauloise and Gitane cigarettes,
  following the death of 49-year-old Richard Gourlain.

  A court ruled in December 1999 that blame in Gourlain's death should
  be shared by the victim and Seita.

  Both sides appealed.

  The court had said that Seita was partially to blame for the death. But it
  ruled that the victim also bore responsibility for failing to stop smoking
  after a law warning consumers about the dangers of smoking was
  introduced in 1976.

  The suit was the first filed against Seita, the company long known for its
  cigarettes made of dark tobacco. It has since merged with Spanish
  tobacco giant Tabacalera.

  Gourlain began smoking at the age of 13. He died of cancer, with both
  lungs and his tongue affected.

  In the 1999 ruling, the court held Seita entirely responsible between
  1963-69, during which time Gourlain was a minor, but found Seita
  carried only 60 percent of the responsibility from 1969 to when the law
  on warning consumers was introduced in 1976.

  Thereafter, the court said that Gourlain alone was responsible.