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Christensen v. Philip Morris USA Inc.6/8/2005
th claim is also barred. This is a consequence of the plain language of Maryland's Wrongful Death Act, which provides that if the decedent's claim would be barred, any wrongful death claim by his beneficiaries also cannot succeed.
In support of their motion, appellees submitted numerous exhibits, including the Decedent's affidavit and deposition testimony from the Richardson case. Appellees also provided the deposition testimony of the Decedent's physicians and family members, as well as some of his medical records.
In their opposition, appellants argued that Christensen did not have actual or inquiry notice of his lung cancer until September 1998, when he obtained the results of a needle biopsy that was performed on August 13, 1998. Further, they argued that the wrongful death claims were not barred because suit was filed within three years of Christensen's death. In addition, they asserted that " ll statutes of limitations applicable to the action filed by [appellants] were tolled by their membership in the Richardson Tobacco Class Action and no statute of limitations applicable to the Christensen action began to run until class decertification on June 15, 2000." Appellants also submitted additional medical records and deposition testimony.
According to Christensen's affidavit and deposition, he began smoking cigarettes in 1940 or 1941, when he was fourteen years old, "because it was the thing to do." He changed brands over the years, and eventually his smoking habit increased to two packs a day. At some point during the 1950's or 1960's, Christensen "became aware generally" of the "health hazards associated with cigarette smoking." Moreover, he was familiar with the Surgeon General's warning on the side of the cigarette packaging.
In approximately 1968, Christensen ceased smoking cigarettes in his home, car, and around his family, for a variety of reasons. During the early 1970's, the effects of approximately thirty years of smoking began to affect Christensen's health. He averred in his affidavit that because he "developed an early morning cough," he "attempted to cut back cigarette consumption."
Ms. Christensen, who was employed by the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene in the 1970's, enrolled her husband in the Johns Hopkins Lung Project (the "Project"), which was gathering data on smokers. Christensen joined the Project in approximately 1974 and remained a participant until 1982. He explained:
Well, once a month we would go down and breathe in this - - I don't know what it was called, a machine, breathalyzer which injected saline solutions into your lungs, and you breathed on that until it caused you to dispense sputum, and then they would take that sputum and analyze it.
They would send you home with little jars, and every morning you would sit over the stove and breathe your own concoction of saline solution, and then they would give you x-rays and take that data. I never received a report. Basically that is what it was.
According to Christensen, on January 15, 1976, a representative of the Project contacted him and told him that he had an unidentified "lung problem." On that day, after thirty-five years of smoking, Christensen quit, "cold turkey." Moreover, he testified that he never resumed smoking cigarettes. Christensen recalled: "Certain days ... scare the hell out of you, and that was one of them. You just don't forget."
Christensen acknowledged that he was "fully aware" of the association between smoking and lung cancer when he received the call from Johns Hopkins in January 1976. The following deposition testimony is pertinent:
[QUESTION]: What was th
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