The Nation - News from May 4, 1988

A widow whose husband smoked and died of lung cancer can pursue a wrongful death lawsuit against a tobacco company and a retailer that sold cigarettes, the Minnesota Court of Appeals ruled. A three-judge panel unanimously overturned a district court ruling in May, 1987, that Ann Forster’s claim was preempted by the Federal Cigarette and Advertising Act. In March, 1985, Mrs. Forster and her husband, John, sued R. J. Reynolds Co., makers of Camel cigarettes, and Erickson Petroleum Corp., owner of Holiday Station Stores. The Forsters claimed the retailer sold Forster the cigarettes. Forster, who was diagnosed as having inoperable lung cancer in November, 1984, died in June, 1985.