Cruz-Vargas v. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.

• Decision Date: 28 October 2003
• Docket Number: No. 02-2688.,02-2688.
• Citation: 348 F.3d 271
• Parties: Irene CRUZ-VARGAS, Eli Rogelio Figueroa-Cruz and Luis Rogelio Figueroa-Cruz, Plaintiffs, Appellants, v. R.J. REYNOLDS TOBACCO COMPANY, Defendant, Appellee, R.J.R. Nabisco, Inc., Nabisco Group Holdings, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit

348 F.3d 271

Irene CRUZ-VARGAS, Eli Rogelio Figueroa-Cruz and Luis Rogelio Figueroa-Cruz, Plaintiffs, Appellants, v. R.J. REYNOLDS TOBACCO COMPANY, Defendant, Appellee, R.J.R. Nabisco, Inc., Nabisco Group Holdings, Defendants.

No. 02-2688.

United States Court of Appeals, First Circuit.

Heard September 10, 2003.

Decided October 28, 2003.

Archie Jennings with whom Amarilys Arocho and Anita Hill-Adames were on brief for appellants.

Robert H. Klonoff with whom Salvador Antonetti Zequeira, Luis A. Oliver, Rosalie Irizarry Silvestrini, James R. Johnson, L. Christine Buchanan, Jones Day, and Fiddler Gonzalez & Rodriguez, P.S.C., were on brief for appellee.

Before SELYA, Circuit Judge, COFFIN, Senior Circuit Judge, and HOWARD, Circuit Judge.

COFFIN, Senior Circuit Judge.

Appellants are the widow and two sons of Luis Figueroa Serrano, a longtime heavy smoker who collapsed and died suddenly after several years of suffering from hypertension.¹ They brought this diversity action against appellee R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, invoking Puerto Rico tort law and alleging that the cigarette manufacturer was responsible for Figueroa Serrano's death. The district court granted summary judgment on most of appellants' claims, allowing only the sons' failure-to-warn claims arising prior to July 1, 1969 to go to the jury. After the jury ruled in favor of the sons, the court granted judgment as a matter of law for Reynolds, concluding that, based on the evidence at trial, the jury was compelled to find that the risks of cigarette smoking were commonly known during the relevant time period. On appeal, the sons challenge the judgment as a matter of law. All three appellants challenge the summary judgment ruling to the extent that it found all post-1969 failure-to-warn claims preempted by federal legislation. Irene Cruz Vargas also challenges the court's ruling that the statute of limitations barred her claims. We affirm both of the district court's rulings on the basis of common knowledge, making it unnecessary to reach appellants' other arguments.

I. Background

The following facts are undisputed. The decedent was a native Spanish speaker with no written or verbal English proficiency. He seldom watched television and rarely, if ever, read newspapers or magazines. Figueroa Serrano was a longtime heavy smoker with a documented medical history of hypertension, including several hospitalizations occurring between 1994 and his death on October 18, 1999. At the request of the family, no autopsy was performed.

Appellants filed this suit against Reynolds in October of 2000, alleging that decedent's smoking was responsible for his hypertension, which in turn was a substantial factor in his death. Appellants brought a series of negligence and strict liability claims under Puerto Rico law, including failure to warn and design defect. They furthermore argued that Reynolds failed to comply with its duty, which they alleged to be implicit in federal regulation, to print Spanish language warnings on cigarette packages sold in Puerto Rico.

The district court granted Reynolds summary judgment on all of Irene Cruz Vargas' claims, finding them time-barred. Cruz Vargas v. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., 218 F.Supp.2d 109, 116 (D.P.R.2002). With respect to the sons' claims, the district court granted Reynolds' motion for summary judgment on claims of defective design and the inherent dangerousness of tobacco and cigarettes. Id. at 121. The court denied Reynolds' motion as to the failure-to-warn claims arising prior to July 1, 1969, the date that the amendments to the Federal Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act went into effect.² Id. at 117. The court found failure-to-warn claims based on conduct after July 1, 1969 preempted by the Labeling Act.

The sons proceeded to a jury trial on their remaining claims. Reynolds defended at trial primarily based on evidence that the risks of cigarette smoking were common knowledge prior to 1969, and thus no duty to warn existed. A jury found in favor of both sons, awarding each damages in the amount of $500,000. The district court subsequently granted Reynolds' motion for judgment as a matter of law, under Fed.R.Civ.P. 50(a), finding that appellants failed to offer any evidence demonstrating that the ordinary consumer lacked knowledge of the health risks and addictive nature of smoking. The district court held that the jury was not entitled to reject the unimpeached, uncontradicted testimony of Reynolds' expert witness, who stated his opinion that the Puerto Rican public was aware of such hazards prior to July 1, 1969.

Appellants allege the district court's action was improper because the evidence presented by Reynolds was susceptible to conflicting inferences. In addition, they contest summary judgment on two grounds: first, that the court erred in determining that the claims accrued at the time appellants learned of Figueroa Serrano's injuries, rather than on the actual date of his death; second, that it further erred in refusing to find that the absence of warnings in Spanish rendered the required warnings of the Labeling Act ineffectual.

II. Judgment as a Matter of Law

We review the grant of judgment as a matter of law de novo. Hochen v. Bobst Group, Inc., 290 F.3d 446, 453 (1st Cir.2002). We examine the record as a whole, reading the evidence in the light most favorable to the jury verdict. Reeves v. Sanderson Plumbing Prod., 530 U.S. 133, 150, 120 S.Ct. 2097, 147 L.Ed.2d 105 (2000). Although we may not weigh the credibility of witnesses, id., we assume the veracity "of any admissions made and stipulations entered into by the party opposing the Rule 50 motion ... as well as any evidence derived from disinterested witnesses that has not been contradicted or impeached." Quintana-Ruiz v. Hyundai Motor Corp., 303 F.3d 62, 69 (1st Cir.2002) (quoting Alvarez-Fonseca v. Pepsi Cola of P.R. Bottling Co., 152 F.3d 17, 23 (1st Cir.1998)). Only if "applying these standards, the evidence does not permit a reasonable jury to find in favor" of appellants will we affirm the district court. Brennan v. GTE Gov't Systems Corp., 150 F.3d 21, 26 (1st Cir.1998).

A. Evidence Regarding Common Knowledge

This case calls for us to evaluate application of the common knowledge doctrine in the context of tobacco litigation. The doctrine stems from the principle that a manufacturer cannot be held liable under either strict liability or negligence for failure to warn of a danger commonly known to the public. See, e.g., Guevara v. Dorsey Labs., Div. of Sandoz, Inc., 845 F.2d 364, 367 (1st Cir.1988) ("The duty to warn in general is limited to hazards not commonly known to the relevant public."); Aponte Rivera v. Sears Roebuck, 44 P.R. Offic. Trans. 7, 144 D.P.R. 830 (1998) ("[A] manufacturer need not warn of a hazard if the average consumer ordinarily has knowledge of the dangers of the product.").

To state a claim for negligence under the law of Puerto Rico, a plaintiff must prove that "(1) defendant owed a duty to prevent the harm by conforming to a reasonable standard of conduct; (2) defendant breached that duty through a negligent act or omission; and (3) the negligent act or omission caused the plaintiff's harm." Tokio Marine & Fire Ins. Co. v. Grove Mfg. Co., 958 F.2d 1169, 1171 (1st Cir. 1992). See also 31 L.P.R.A. § 5141 (1991). Puerto Rico has also adopted, by judicial act and with a slight modification, the strict liability principles embodied in section 402A of the Restatement (Second) of Torts. Perez-Trujillo v. Volvo Car Corp., 137 F.3d 50, 53 n. 5 (1st Cir.1998) (clarifying that claimant in Puerto Rico must show the product was "unsafe" rather than "unreasonably dangerous"); Rivera Santana v. Superior Packaging, Inc., 1992 P.R.Eng. 754830 *3 n. 4, 132 D.P.R. 115 (1992) (noting that Puerto Rico has adopted U.S. common law products liability principles to "fill a gap in our body of laws").

A products liability plaintiff alleging failure to warn must prove "(1) the manufacturer knew, or should have known of the risk inherent in the product; (2) there were no warnings or instructions, or those provided were inadequate; (3) the absence of warnings made the product inherently dangerous; (4) the absence of adequate warnings or instructions was the proximate cause of plaintiff's injury." Aponte Rivera, 44 P.R. Offic. Trans. at 6. Under the common knowledge doctrine, however, a defendant neither breaches a duty nor causes the product to be inherently dangerous when the allegedly omitted warning concerns a danger of which the public is well aware.

In an ordinary case on summary judgment or judgment as a matter of law, plaintiffs point to evidence suggesting a genuine dispute of a material fact. See Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 251-52, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986) (standard for judgment as a matter of law mirrors that of summary judgment, and thus to withstand a motion under either inquiry, the evidence must indicate "sufficient disagreement to require submission to a jury"). In other cases in which common knowledge was at issue, plaintiffs have successfully defended against summary judgment motions by pointing to evidence suggesting such a genuine dispute. See, e.g., Tompkin v. American Brands, 219 F.3d 566, 568-70 (6th Cir.2000) (plaintiff's expert reviewed periodicals, polls, and industry and government reports from the relevant time period, concluding that smokers were not adequately informed of the risks); Little v. Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp., 243 F.Supp.2d 480, 492-495 (D.S.C.2001) (plaintiff's "sample authorities," including journals, reports and polls, created a jury question regarding common knowledge). Appellants here take a different approach, contending that they did not have a burden to produce any evidence at all. The crux of appellants' entreaty on appeal is that neither the strict liability nor the negligence claim requires any affirmative showing, and thus the burden...