[Intl-tobacco] Netherlands: Smoker launches pioneering damages case

[Robert Weissman]

Smoker launches pioneering damages case
Expatica

6 June 2005

AMSTERDAM - A 67-year-old Dutch man who smoked for 25 years was due to
serve a writ on Monday demanding damages from tobacco firm British
American Tobacco (BAT).

"I want the tobacco industry to answer up to years of deceit and
concealment," said claimant Peter R=F6mer, of Landgraaf in the province of
Limburg.

It is the first time that a seriously ill former smoker has taken a
tobacco company to court in the Netherlands, news agency ANP reported.

R=F6mer smoked BAT cigarettes (Caballero, Peter Stuyvesant and Lord)
between 1957 and 1983. He now suffers from pulmonary emphysema.

The court battle has been prepared over five years. R=F6mer hopes the court

will declare the tobacco manufacturer responsible for his illness and he
accuses BAT of failing to warn about the risks of smoking.
Warnings against smoking were only placed on cigarette packets in the
Netherlands at the insistence of the Dutch government in 1981.

R=F6mer said he was not aware of the risks when he started smoking in
1957. He only became aware of the risks at a later date, but by then he
was already addicted to smoking.

Tobacco companies are being taken to court across the globe by smokers.
BAT company lawyer Joost Keulen said several thousand lawsuits have been
lodged against the cigarette industry.

Keulen said damages have only been awarded in a few cases. Most cases
are dismissed because smokers knew for many years that smoking was
unhealthy, he said.

The lawyer said BAT is confident of success in its lawsuit, pinning its
hopes on the judge ruling that smokers are personally responsible.

Lawyers representing R=F6mer said the judge must decide to what extent he
was aware of the risks. One lawyer said the tobacco industry had
remained silent despite the fact the risks of smoking had been known for
decades.

R=F6mer has called in the personal injury lawyers from an Amersfoort law
firm, SAP.