McTear v Imperial Tobacco Ltd
| Jurisdiction | Scotland |
| Judgment Date | 31 May 2005 |
| Date | 31 May 2005 |
| Docket Number | No 1 |
| Court | Court of Session (Outer House) |
COURT OF SESSION Outer House
Before Lord Nimmo-Smith
Scots law - public health - no duty of care for smoker owed by tobacco manufacturers
A manufacturer of cigarettes whose products were smoked by a person who was aware of the health risks associated with smoking did not owe that person a common law duty of care to see that he was not injured by its products.
Lord Nimmo-Smith so held in the Outer House of the Court of Session when rejecting a claim by Margaret McTear against the defenders, Imperial Tobacco Ltd, for damages under section 1 of the Damages (Scotland) Act 1976 in connection with the death of her husband, Alfred McTear.
Mr McTear died of lung cancer, aged 48. Mrs McTear claimed that the lung cancer was caused, at least to a material extent, by his smoking, from 1964 to 1992, cigarettes manufactured by the defenders, and that throughout the period during which he smoked them the defenders were negligent in selling cigarettes, or in any event in selling them without appropriate warnings.
Mr Colin McEachran, QC, Mr Barry Divers and Miss Luise Locke for Mrs McTear; Mr Mike Jones, QC and Mr James Wolffe for Imperial Tobacco.
LORD NIMMO -SMITH, said that the pursuer had, on the evidence, failed to prove that cigarette smoking could cause lung cancer.
A fundamental defect in the presentation of the pursuer's case had been the failure to present the primary literature about any epidemiological...
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Kennedy v Cordia (Services) LLP
...to ascertain that it complies with the four considerations which we have set out in para 38 above and is otherwise sound. In McTear v Imperial Tobacco Ltd 2005 2 SC 1, para 5.17 Lord Nimmo Smith usefully described the judge's role in these terms: "[I]t is necessary to consider with care, i......
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Edward Pratt V. The Scottish Ministers
... ... next considered the proper approach to opinion (or expert) evidence, under reference to McTear v Imperial Tobacco 2005 SC 1 at paras.[5.3]-[5.11]. The conclusion which he drew from the ... ...
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Upper Tribunal (Immigration and asylum chamber), 2021-06-21, DA/00395/2019
...and (iv) economy in litigation.” The Supreme Court also endorsed what had been said by Lord Nimmo Smith in McTear v Imperial Tobacco 2005 2 SC 1: [I]t is necessary to consider with care, in respect of each of the expert witnesses, to what extent he was aware of and observed his function. I ......
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Morton James Wylie V. Dr. Donald Grosset+greater Glasgow Health Board
... ... Reference was made to McTear v Imperial Tobacco 2005 SC 1. It was said that the pursuer had failed to aver sufficient causal ... ...
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Liability for Products in the Consumer Protection Bill 2006: A Comparative Critique
...of determining factual causation in relation towhether smoking was the cause of lung cancer, see McTear v Imperial Tobacco Ltd 2005 2 SC 1.111Reimann 2003 51 AmJCompL 772.112Product Liability in the European Union.113European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations Position......