From today's Business Digest in the Courier-Journal:

Norweigan court rejects smoker's suit

Norway's Supreme Court ruled yesterday that the tobacco industry was not responsible for a smoker's death from cancer in the country's first tobacco compensation lawsuit. Robet Lund died at age 67 in October 2000 from lung cancer. Before his death, he sued Norway's biggest tobacco company, Tiedemanns Tobaksfabrikk AS, alleging the company was aware of the health risks its products caused. He started smoking in 1953, more than 20 years before Norway banned tobacco advertising and required health warnings on packages in 1975. When lower courts rejected his claim, saying he could have quit smoking after he learned of the dangers, his widow, Unni Lund, appealed to the Supreme Court. In its unanimous ruling, the high court said knowledge of the risk of smoking was so widespread after 1964 "and was given so much attention in the media" that Lund must have known the dangers. The court said it remains up to the individual to decide whether to smoke. Tiedemanns spokesman Jan Robert Kvam said they were satisfied with the ruling, because it confirms that they sell legal products and that the ruling is likely to prevent a possible flood of similar cases. Lund's daughter, Jorun Elisabeth Lund , said the family was surprised and disappointed.

Now, it's nice to see some sanity exhibited by an overseas court. However, it just makes the idiocy of our own courts when it comes to tort litigation all the more evident. Since when did anything about personal responsibility ever come up in a Europe, the bastion of the nanny-state.