[Intl-tobacco] Germany: Suit Against Tobacco Company to Commence

[Robert Weissman]

Taking on Tobacco - Deutsche Welle
 About a quarter of Germans light up regularly.
 November 6, 2003

 A German smoker is suing a tobacco company, claiming that his addiction
to cigarettes caused severe health problems. The trial begins on Friday.
It is the first time a German court has agreed to hear such a case.
Wolfgang Heine lit his first cigarette almost 40 years ago. The
56-year-old from a small town near Dortmund in western Germany has been
smoking ever since -- two packs a day until 1983, a little less than
that since then.

 Ten years ago, he had a heart attack, followed by another one in 1999.
He's already undergone two bypass surgeries and needs a third, but his
doctors don't think that his heart could handle any more. Wolfgang Heine
says he is dying. "I'm short of breath, quickly get exhausted and have
to rest a lot," he told dpa. He blames the Reemtsma tobacco company,
whose cigarettes he's been smoking all along.

 On Friday, Heine will take his case to a German courtroom. He's
breaking new ground in the country, because for the first time, a
tobacco company will have to defend itself against charges of
endangering peoples' health through smoking. Such trials are common in
the United States, where juries have awarded billions of dollars in
punitive damages to sick smokers.

 Germany's smoker levels are among the highest in the world. About 18 to
20 million Germans, roughly a quarter of the
 population, smoke a pack of cigarettes a day. The country also tops the
list of nations with the highest number of young smokers, according to
the German Center for Questions Regarding Addiction: More than ten
percent of 13 to 15-year-olds smoke, as do more than 15 percent of
Germans under 20.

 But courts here have so far declined to hear similar cases, saying that
smokers should know about the health risks of their habit. Heine, a
retired accountant, claims that warnings on cigarette packs, which have
recently been enlarged, didn't exist when he started smoking. He's also
arguing that tobacco companies add addictive substances to their
cigarettes.

 The company denies this and has decided to refrain from commenting on
the case before the trial. "But we believe that the plaintiff's
arguments are weak and therefore think that we are in a good position,"
a Reemstma spokesperson told AFP. The German Reemtsma is now owned by
the British Imperial Tobacco Group.

 Setting off an avalanche of law suits?

 Should Heine be successful in court, other smokers are expected to
follow suit. "Then it's a whole different ballgame, involving billions
of euros," Heine's lawyer told dpa. He added that to his knowledge,
tobacco companies have insured themselves against smokers' claims in the
billions.

 Unlike American smokers who press for millions, Heine is only asking
for a total of =80213,000 ($244,000). His lawyer also wants the court to
force Reemtsma to reveal information about the content of its
cigarettes. Heine himself is still smoking a few cigarettes a day.