Naegele v. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. (2002)

JOSEPH NAEGELE, as Trustee, etc., et al., Plaintiffs and Appellants, v. R.J. REYNOLDS TOBACCO COMPANY et al., Defendants and Respondents.

RICHARD DONALDSON, Plaintiff and Appellant, v. R.J. REYNOLDS TOBACCO COMPANY et al., Defendants and Respondents.

(Superior Court of the City and County of San Francisco, Nos. 992230, 992223 and 992217, David A. Garcia, Judge.)

(The Court of Appeal, First Dist., Div. One, Nos. A084367, 81 Cal. App. 4th 503.)

(Opinion by Kennard, J., with George, C. J., Baxter, Chin, and Brown, JJ., concurring. Concurring opinion by Brown, J. (see p. 867). Concurring and dissenting opinion by Werdegar, J., with Moreno, J., concurring (see p. 870).)

COUNSEL

Wartnick, Chaber, Harowitz, Smith & Tigerman, Harry F. Wartnick, Madelyn J. Chaber, Phillip Scott Chan; Law Offices of Daniel U. Smith, Daniel U. Smith and Ted W. Pelletier for Plaintiffs and Appellants.

Meyers, Nave, Riback, Silver & Wilson and Andre J. Saltzman for Professor Stephen D. Sugarman as Amicus Curiae on behalf of Plaintiffs and Appellants.

Bill Lockyer, Attorney General, Richard M. Frank, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Dennis Eckhart, Assistant Attorney General, and Peter M. Williams, Deputy Attorney General, as Amici Curiae on behalf of Plaintiffs and Appellants.

Howard, Rice, Nemerovski, Canady, Falk & Rabkin, H. Joseph Escher III, Ethan P. Schulman, Keith D. Kessler, Richard Shively and Anne-Marie Eileraas for Defendant and Respondent R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company.

Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold and Frederick D. Baker for Defendant and Respondent Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corporation.

Fred Main for California Chamber of Commerce as Amicus Curiae on behalf of Defendants and Respondents.

William L. Gausewitz for The Alliance of American Insurers, The American Insurance Association, The National Association of Independent Insurers, The National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies and The Reinsurance Association of America as Amici Curiae on behalf of Defendants and Respondents. [28 Cal. 4th 859]

OPINION

KENNARD, J.-

Tobacco-related illnesses are a leading cause of death in this state and worldwide, and these debilitating illnesses have imposed enormous costs on tobacco users, their families, and society. (See, e.g., Health & Saf. Code, § 104350, subd. (a).) Although the risk of illness and death from tobacco use has become increasingly well known in recent decades, tobacco consumption continues to be widespread, at least in part because tobacco contains nicotine, a substance the Surgeon General of the United States has determined to be addictive. (U.S. Surgeon Gen. Rep., The Health Consequences of Smoking: Nicotine Addiction (1988),