BOSTON (Legal Newsline) - A person's death after a long illness does not create a new chance for their estate to file a lawsuit, the Massachusetts Supreme Court has ruled in a pair of closely watched cases.
Rejecting arguments from plaintiffs attorneys, the court held July 6 that smokers who had missed the statute of limitations to sue the tobacco industry over their injuries while alive can't have their estates sue after they died.
Plaintiffs lawyers argued wrongful death claims are given a three-year window to be filed after a person's death. But the court noted a difference in the case of the smokers, essentially ruling their deaths didn't trigger a brand-new three-year period to file suit.
"In these case, because the decedents had no right to bring a cause of action for the injuries that caused their deaths at the time that they died as a result of the running of the statute of limitations on the decedents' underlying tort and breach of warranty claims, the plaintiffs, as personal representatives of the decedents' estates, had no right to bring wrongful death actions based on those injuries," the ruling says.
One lawsuit, brought on behalf of Ralph Fabiano, targeted Philip Morris. Fabiano started smoking at 15 years old and in 2004 was diagnosed with emphysema, from which he died in 2014.
John Fuller was a Camel smoker for more than 40 years, having started at 17 years old. Doctors diagnosed him with lung cancer in 2012, and he died four years later. The ensuing lawsuit blamed R.J. Reynolds.
Though subsequent lawsuits were filed within the three-year window for wrongful death claims, the court found since the estates represented the dead men who had not filed suit after discovering their illnesses, they had no right to sue after their deaths from those illnesses.
The Massachusetts Defense Lawyers Association and the Product Liability Advisory Council submitted amicus briefs in favor of the defendants, while the Massachusetts Academy of Trial Attorneys supported the plaintiffs' arguments.