BOSTON - In what may be the first attempt to hold retailers liable for smoking-related illnesses, the family of an Agawam woman who died of a lung ailment is suing Stop & Shop and several convenience stores.

The family is also suing seven tobacco companies for allegedly contributing to her death after a half-century of smoking.

Thomas Kenefick III of Springfield, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said Stop & Shop was named as a defendant because the deceased woman had bought cigarettes at its stores.

Attorneys for Kutsmeda's family are trying to turn the complaint into a class action suit, enabling others in similar circumstances to win damages if the suit is successful.

story

What total lunacy.

The city gave a business license to these convenience stores to sell cigarettes.

The state of Massachusetts allowed the city to do it. So did the federal government. If the convenience stores are culpable, so is everybody in the entire state and possibly country. Of course, NOT the dead woman. Oh no.

The ACS, ALA, AHA, etc., all argued recently against prohibition in North Dakota (?). Maybe they can get dragged into this too.

Sounds like an attempt to force prohibition. Shops that sell smokes will be scared of trial lawyers busting down their doors so they won't sell them anymore... or so goes their "logic." If they succeed, we'll be forced to buy our smokes from crack dealers who won't be so compliant and may silence these buffoons for good. It will be interesting to see what happens with this case, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts makes $1.50/pack in taxes, yet they are one of the biggest anti havens in the US, if not the world.

The crack dealers probably won't be dealing cigarettes.........

Outside of the halls of the Delaware legislature one of the nastiest anti-smokers I ever had a face to face confrontation with was the crack dealer plying his trade in front of my house.

This is the same crack dealer that anti-smokers on other message boards defended against my calling the authorities on him. Yup, that's right, I was criticized for calling the cops on someone that was doing something illegal on my property. I was considered a hypocrite for defending the right of private property owners to permit a legal activity (adult tobacco smoking) while defending my right as a private property owner to keep illegal activity (crack dealing) from occuring on my property.

The mindset of these people just boggles my mind. Equating calling an anonymous snitch line about tobacco smoking in a bar with making a formal complaint to the police about a crack dealer makes absolutely no sense to me.

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Smoke gnatzies: small minds buzzing in you business - SWAT'EM