Roysdon v. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.

Roysdon (plaintiff) smoked Reynolds's (defendant) cigarettes for decades and eventually had part of his leg amputated due to severe vascular disease he attributed to smoking; his products-liability claim was limited to cigarettes smoked during the ten years preceding suit, and although his expert linked vascular disease to smoking generally, the district court directed a verdict for Reynolds, finding Roysdon may have shown the cigarettes were defective but not that they were unreasonably dangerous.