[Intl-tobacco] Ireland: Plea to drop time limit on tobacco court cases (fwd)

[Robert Weissman]

Plea to drop time limit on  tobacco court cases
by Martina Devlin
Source: Irish Independent, Tuesday, 5/1/01

 THE Government was yesterday urged to drop the Statute of Limitations in
cases taken by smokers against the tobacco industry so victims won't be
debarred from seeking compensation.

    Solicitor Peter McDonnell, who is taking more than 200 cases against
six tobacco companies and hopes to be in the High Court within a year,
said it was unfair to disqualify people who were unaware of the cancer
risks.

   "There were no health warnings," said Mr McDonnell.  "These cases are
unique. The industry concealed information which linked smoking to certain
diseases like cancer.

    "Many of the people who have suffered because they became addicted to
smoking did not know the dangers of smoking at that time," he said.

    The Statute of Limitations allows three years from the date of
diagnosis of an injury until a claim is made. Health warnings only started
appearing in 1978 on cigarette packets but in some cases it was many years
before smoking-related diseases were apparent.

 An Oireachtas committee in 1999 recommended the Statute of Limitations be
lifted in this case.