Link to smoker’s death ‘was not proved’

JUDGE Nimmo Smith said that for Mrs McTear to have succeeded, she would have had to prove that: Cigarette smoking can cause lung cancer.

That cigarette smoking caused Mr McTear’s lung cancer.

That Mr McTear smoked Imperial Tobacco-manufactured cigarettes for long enough and in sufficient quantity for his smoking of their products to have caused the cancer.

That Mr McTear smoked Imperial cigarettes because they were in breach of a duty of care owed by them to him and that such a breach caused or contributed to Mr McTear’s lung cancer.

The judge said: “There is no direct evidence that ITL, as a company, have ever accepted that there was a causal connection between smoking and disease, and the evidence before me does not satisfy me that this is the inference which should be drawn."

He continued: “Given that there are possible causes of lung cancer ... it is not possible to determine in any individual case whether but for an individual’s cigarette smoking he probably would not have contracted lung cancer.”

Judge Nimmo Smith said there was no lack of reasonable care on the part of Imperial at any point during the time Mr McTear smoked its products.

He said that if a consumer knew of a product’s potential for causing harm, there could not be said to be a breach of a duty of care on the part of a manufacturer.