Have you heard of Cindy Naugle? The 61-year-old book keeper from Fort Lauderdale, US, recently won a $300 million lawsuit against Philip Morris, the makers of her favourite cigarette brand for 25 years, due to which she is battling lung cancer today. Can you imagine something like this happening in India? Deepak Kumar, a Mumbai-based customs official, can. "It is only now that every cigarette packet carries a statutory warning. For 30 years, I smoked without realising its dangers," he says. Kumar, who is battling throat cancer, has taken the manufacturers, ITC, to the consumer court for not warning him about the dangers of smoking. He has sought Rs 1 crore in damages.
"While ITC made money, I was unknowingly marching towards my death," Kumar says in his petition. The consumer court is yet to hear the case but experts think a favourable judgement can open the doors for health-related class action suits in India.
However, within a year there were frequent breakdowns. He took it to the dealer who said that the owner's manual called it a passenger vehicle with limited off-road capabilities and not an SUV like the original brochure. Tolat filed a case against GM in the district consumer court in Ahmedabad. The decision was in his favour but the company kept appealing till the case finally ended in the Supreme Court, which took Tolat's side.
The National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission has looked at the issue of income from advertising hoardings. While hearing a case against a Mumbai-based builder, the court ruled that it is the housing society which is entitled to keep the earnings from hoardings on its buildings. All in all, a nice note on which to kick off 2010.
