By Park Si-soo
An appellate court upheld a lower court ruling Thursday that rejected claims for compensation by lung cancer patients who said long-time smoking caused the disease.
However, the court recognized the cause-and-effect relationship between smoking and lung cancer in line with the first verdict in a case filed against KT&G, the largest tobacco company in Korea.
The latest ruling left the door open for plaintiffs to get possible compensation in the future should they come up with more convincing evidence during additional litigation.
The court underscored that the denial of compensation reflected the “lack of evidence” to support the correlation between the disease and smoking.
“There are insufficient grounds to judge that the defendant committed any illegalities in its tobacco-making process so it is not liable to pay compensation on these grounds,” said Judge Seong Kee-moon of the Seoul High Court, rejecting the damages claim.
But the judge added the plaintiffs may “get compensation if they file an additional damages suit against KT&G with stronger evidence.” The first ruling in the case in 2006 completely denied the possibility of compensation, saying it was hard to see the habit as the exclusive factor causing the disease.
The judge suggested KT&G support anti-smoking campaigns and set up a foundation to run the programs.
Lawyer Park Ghyo-sun, who represented the tobacco firm, welcomed the decision, but refuted the possibility of future compensation as suggested by the court.
“Smoking is not the sole factor causing cancer. It’s hard to discern exactly what causes cancer in a patient,” Park told reporters following the ruling. “Comprehensive tests, family history and daily life patterns need to be looked at to determine the exact cause of the disease.”
Lawyer Bae Keum-ja, who represented the plaintiff comprised of six cancer patients and 25 distraught family members, called the ruling “disappointing and shameful.”
“It has been scientifically proven that smoking is largely to blame for lung cancer. But the court has denied it,” said Bae, who has been in charge of the litigation for 12 years. Bae said she would appeal the ruling at the Supreme Court.
The dispute over whether the tobacco firm is liable for compensating the patients dates back to 1999 when the six and their family members filed a damages suit against KT&G and the government, demanding 307 million won ($274,000) in compensation.
They claimed “smoking was largely to blame for the development of cancer” and “But KT&G didn’t sufficiently warn the public of the risks of smoking, neglecting its duty of protect the people’s health and life.”
The second round of the litigation was centered on the cause-and-effect relationship between smoking and lung cancer; whether KT&G uses chemical addictives to make it hard for smokers to quit; and whether the firm has fulfilled its duty of informing the general public of the harmful effects of smoking.
Of the six patients, five are now dead and the only survivor, Bang Hyo-jung, 62, is fighting waning health at a hospital in Wonju, Gangwon Province.
In an interview earlier this month, Bang, who had nearly one third of his left lung removed in an operation, said, “The government and the tobacco producer are jointly liable for my cancer since they promoted smoking in the 1970s by changing the tax system so that it gave more state subsidies to towns with more smokers.” He said, “I was taken aback when I learned that a cigarette is a mixture of many cancer-causing chemicals and other toxic material.”
Bae put a fresh spin on the second round of the battle, claiming that KT&G has used chemical addictives in the manufacturing of cigarettes to make it more difficult for smokers to quit the habit, which has been denied by the company. The allegation led to three judges dealing with the case to conduct an unprecedented inspection of a KT&G plant located in Daejeon in 2009.
Last year, the plaintiffs proposed dropping the suit, if KT&G spent 610 billion won ($545 million) over the next 20 years establishing an anti-smoking foundation and a variety of anti-smoking campaigns. But the company refused to do so, citing negative impacts on shareholders.
According to the National Cancer Center, nearly 67,000 people died of cancer in 2007. Of these, 12.1 percent had lung cancer.
