W.Va. Smokers Trial Receives the Go-Ahead

West Virginia smokers suing the tobacco industry for an unprecedented medical screening program have presented enough evidence to send the case to a jury, a judge ruled.

Ohio County Circuit Judge Arthur Recht ruled against a stack of dismissal motions, saying the plaintiff’s case met the required legal standards for the case to proceed.

Jurors were told to return today, when the defense is scheduled to call its first witness.

The class-action lawsuit, filed on behalf of 250,000 West Virginians, seeks the creation of an industry-funded medical program that would provide free diagnostic tests for healthy smokers. The class members are people who have smoked the equivalent of a pack a day for at least five years, but who are not yet sick. It is the first medical monitoring case of its kind to go to trial in the United States, forcing the tobacco companies to defend what is essentially a product liability claim.