Widow sues tobacco giant
A Scottish widow is to become the first person in the UK to take legal action against the tobacco industry today.
This morning Margaret McTear will get to put her case against Imperial Tobacco, one of the world’s largest tobacco companies, after a 10 year legal battle.
Her husband, Alf McTear, died of lung cancer in 1994. Before he died he took action against Imperial Tobacco saying that he had not been warned against the dangers of smoking when he took up the habit in the sixties.
He began the legal action in 1993 and his wife took the case over when he died a year later.
Imperial Tobacco have dismissed the case saying that there was a long-standing awareness that smoking is bad for health. However similar cases in the United States have cost the tobacco industry millions of dollars in damages.
The case will be heard in the Court of Session in Edinburgh.
