Shin & Kim successfully represented KT&G in two tobacco cases filed against KT&G by smokers and their families by securing a Supreme Court victory in favor of KT&G.

The victory we earned for KT&G was due in large measure to the capabilities and experience we built from numerous successes in previous product liability cases involving tobacco, automobile emissions and Agent Orange.  This Supreme Court decision of April 10, 2014 was particularly meaningful, as it was the final court judgment for two tobacco cases that have been pending for 15 years since they were first filed in 1999; it followed the decisions of the court of first instance in 2007 and the appellate court in 2011.

The first lawsuit was filed by a smoker and his family; the smoker had worked as a sailor in the engine control room of an ocean-going vessel.  The Supreme Court affirmed the lower court’s rulings and dismissed the plaintiffs’ appeal on the same grounds found by the lower court, namely, that (i) the sailor could not be considered to have continuously smoked domestic tobacco products, (ii) his lung cancer was diagnosed as adenocarcinoma which had few epidemiological correlations with tobacco, and (iii) asbestos, which was used as insulation material in the engine control room of the vessel, contributed to the development of the sailor’s lung cancer (i.e., adenocarcinoma).

The second lawsuit was a product liability claim brought jointly by six smokers and their families.  The plaintiffs were represented by a team of attorneys organized with the support of the Korean Association of Smoking and Health.  The Supreme Court dismissed the plaintiffs’ appeal on grounds that (i) the defendants’ tobacco products could not be considered to be defective, (ii) the manufacturers did not engage in unlawful conduct during the course of manufacturing and selling tobacco products, and (iii) the individual causal relationship between smoking and lung cancer required further review.

Ghyo-Sun Park, who led KT&G’s defense in the two lawsuits for the past 15 years, stated with respect to the Supreme Court decisions, “I hope this will serve to finally put an end to the controversy over the manufacture and safety of tobacco.”