BRITISH VICTIMS GIVE US VERDICT A CAUTIOUS WELCOME

BRITISH anti-smoking campaigners were cautious yesterday about the
impact of the San Francisco jury's verdict.

Success on one side of the Atlantic does not automatically lead to
success on the other.

British lung cancer victims seeking compensation from UK tobacco
companies suffered a serious setback this week when a high court judge
decided not to exercise his power to allow eight test cases, lodged
outside the legal time limit, to proceed against Gallaher and Imperial
Tobacco.

The sufferers had asked Mr Justice Wright to use his discretion under
the 1980 Limitations Act to waive a rule stating that such claims must
proceed within three years of diagnosis of the disease.

The decision means that 36 of the original 52 plaintiffs are now
barred from proceeding. The remaining 16 are considering whether to
fight on.

Clive Bates, director of Ash, the anti-smoking pressure group, said:
"If this US decision had come a month ago I would have said brilliant.
Now I am not so sure. The judge in the UK case has, in refusing to
exercise his discretion, displayed his ill will and displeasure
towards the plaintiffs. Some of the 16 who could still proceed are
quite frail and the prospect of being grilled by the tobacco
companies' lawyers is quite unpleasant.

"They are determined to pursue their claims but they have to decide
whether it is worth proceeding. The court has put a big hurdle in
front of the case."

Gordon McVie, director-general of the Cancer Research Campaign, said:
"This is another nail in the coffin for the tobacco industry. But the
danger is, the more we hound them in this country and the US, the more
likely they are to target their activities in the Third World. I hope
it will give lawyers for cancer patients in this country ammunition to
appeal against the judge's decision here."

A spokesman for Imperial Tobacco in the UK said: "The legal situation
in the US is completely different and this has absolutely no relevance
to the situation here."