United States

The appellants, representatives of a smoker who died from lung cancer and the smoker's wife, filed a lawsuit against a tobacco company and a tobacco industry trade group (now appellees) for falsely claiming that the brand of cigarettes that the decedent smoked was safer than other brands, among other issues.  The trial court found in favor of the defendants and ruled also that the plaintiffs raised too many issues in a post trial statement, thereby waiving them for appeal.  (Filed pursuant to the Pennsylvania rules of appellate procedure, the post trial statement informs the trial judge of alleged errors at the trial level.)  Appellants appealed to the Superior Court which affirmed the waiver except as to two issues.  On appeal, the Supreme Court found that the number of issues raised in the post-trial statement by itself did not provide a basis for denying appellate review where an appeal otherwise complies with appellate practice.  The Court remanded the case to the Superior Court, instructing it to consider more comprehensively the eight issues plaintiffs ultimately had decided to pursue in their appeal to the Superior Court.