Haglund v. Philip Morris Inc.

We determine in this case whether a cigarette manufacturer in a wrongful death action predicated on breach of the warranty of merchantability may assert as an affirmative defense that the decedent smoker’s use of cigarettes was “unreasonable.” See Correia v. Firestone Tire and Rubber Co., 388 Mass. 342, 356 (1983) (in warranty liability action, “the user’s negligence does not prevent recovery except when he unreasonably uses a product that he knows to be defective and dangerous”) (Correia defense).2

Following the death from lung cancer of her husband, Stephen C. Haglund (decedent), a long-time…