The Connecticut Supreme Court decided two tobacco cases in 2016: Izzarelli v. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. and Bifolck v. Philip Morris, Inc. Both concern the application of the Restatement of Torts to product liability tort claims by smokers against tobacco companies. These cases were a missed opportunity for the Supreme Court to bring Connecticut tort law up to date.
Izzarelli concerned comment (i) to § 402A of the Restatement (Second) of Torts, which states in infamous part: “Good tobacco is not unreasonably dangerous merely because the effects of smoking may be harmful; but tobacco containing something like marijuana may be unreasonably dangerous.” Izzarelli didn’t have to repudiate that comment because the case concerned what the plaintiff claimed was bad tobacco—i.e., cigarettes that had enhanced addictive properties because of their design and manufacturing features. The majority of the court then disposed of the case in accordance with its half-century of precedents under § 402A.
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