Limitations regarding the use of quotes
The quotes provided here reflect statements from a specific decision. Accordingly, the International Legal Consortium (ILC) cannot guarantee that an appellate court has not reversed a lower court decision which may influence the applicability or influence of a given quote. All quotes have been selected based on the subjective evaluations undertaken by the ILC meaning that quotes provided here may not accurately or comprehensively represent a given court’s opinion or conclusion, as such quotes may have originally appeared alongside other negative opinions or accompanying facts. Further, some quotes are derived from unofficial English translations, which may alter their original meaning. We emphasize the need to review the original decision and related decisions before authoritatively relying on quotes. Using quotes provided here should not be construed as legal advice and is not intended to be a substitute for legal counsel on any subject matter in any jurisdiction. Please see the full limitations at https://www.tobaccocontrollaws.org/about.
Thirty non-smoking flight attendants brought a class action against a group of tobacco companies claiming that they suffered from health conditions allegedly resulting from continuous exposure to smoke emitted from the cigarettes of passengers during flights. The plaintiffs sought damages for the injuries under common law consumer protection theories, including strict tort liability, breach of implied warranty, negligence, fraud, misrepresentation and conspiracy to commit fraud. The trial court dismissed the class action, in part, because it found that the class representatives presented issues that potentially were not shared by all class members. The District Court of Appeal of Florida, Third District, reversed the trial court’s decision, finding that the test for establishing the requisite commonality of issues shared by members of a class was not as strict as the one that the trial court had applied. The Court ordered the reinstatement of the class action.