Opinion ID: 1601965
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: whether the court erred in excluding proof of the defendant's youth marketing practices.

Text: ¶ 33. Plaintiff contends that she should have been allowed to present as evidence a 1973 memorandum written by Claude E. Teague, Jr., Ph.D., an RJR scientist, titled, Some thoughts About New Brands of Cigarettes for the Youth Market. Plaintiff argues that she should have been permitted to present this article to show RJR's knowledge regarding youth marketing. Moreover, Plaintiff asserts that this evidence would have shown that Joe Nunnally was not negligent and simply succumbed to peer pressure in exactly the manner anticipated by RJR. ¶ 34. We find that this argument is without merit. The article in question was published in 1973. Nunnally was born in 1952 and began smoking in 1960. Nunnally became a habitual smoker in the mid-1960's. By 1973, Nunnally was twenty-one-years old and no longer a minor. Therefore, RJR's actions after this article was published could not have influenced Nunnally to begin smoking or affected his smoking habits as a minor. Therefore, the trial court was correct in refusing to admit it into evidence.