A Providence medical malpractice attorney is signing up restaurant workers to act as plaintiffs in a class-action lawsuit against the state of Rhode Island, after the General Assembly recently balked at a law prohibiting smoking in restaurants and bars.
The lawsuit is in its preliminary stages, said Kent Servant, a restaurant employee in Providence, who brought the idea of a class-action lawsuit to Vincent D. Morgera Ltd. Morgera is handling the case on a pro bono basis.
In the first week of June, Morgera’s office sent letters to restaurants in Rhode Island in an attempt to sign restaurant employees onto the class-action suit, said Srini Reddy, a paralegal in Morgera’s office. Morgera also wrote to Gov. Don Carcieri in June, telling him that if the General Assembly didn’t pass the smoke-free legislation he would file a class-action lawsuit in federal court.
“The Legislature of Rhode Island has already passed a statute saying that cigarette smoke is a health hazard that people need to be protected against. I mean they’ve said that – it’s part of our law.
“They created a nonsmoking policy for government buildings, and also libraries, museums, hospitals – there are a variety of places where smoking is banned. So why should this group of people be subjected to a health hazard, and yet others are protected by the law?” Morgera asked.
“It’s a glaring omission, and it’s a glaring example of politics in Rhode Island at work. To me, it’s obvious that they backed off because of strong lobbying by the tobacco industry, and also restaurant owners who I think feel they are going to lose business. But there’s just no excuse. I think it’s disgusting that these people are out there being unprotected.”
So far, about 12 people who work in restaurants or bars have joined the lawsuit, said Servant. Servant, an ex-smoker who has worked in restaurants and bars for 20 years, works at Pot Au Feu – a smoke-free restaurant in Providence.
He said he got the idea for the class-action suit after he read that New York City passed a smoking ban in restaurants and bars partly because the union that represents restaurant workers there had filed a multimillion-dollar lawsuit.
Although only about a dozen plaintiffs have signed onto the potential class-action suit so far, restaurateurs, legislators and insurance companies should recognize such a lawsuit as a legitimate threat, said John M. Roney, president of the Rhode Island Bar Association.
“People should be cognizant of the fact that many safety regulations have been imposed by litigation. When legislators fail to act in certain situations, litigation follows,” said Roney. “Many car-safety standards came about through court cases. There’s no smoking on airlines because of a similar lawsuit in the 1980s, filed by a law professor and a group of law students at Georgetown University. They found a handle and filed suit in the federal courts and won.”
If Morgera filed his class-action suit and won, restaurant and bar owners would probably face devastating insurance premium increases by insurers, including Warwick’s Beacon Mutual Insurance Co., the state’s largest workers’ compensation carrier, said Robert I. Burke, the owner of the restaurants Pot Au Feu and the Federal Reserve.
“These could result in huge workers’ comp premium increases for the restaurant industry. Let’s face it, cut fingers will seem like nothing compared to claims involving heart disease, lung cancer and emphysema,” said Burke.
“We all know that if a lawyer can find a pot of gold at the end of a lawsuit, then that lawsuit will get filed. I think Vincent Morgera would like to be the Erin Brockovich of Rhode Island. Other people doubt it, they say, ‘No, it can’t be done.’ But these things really happen. People don’t understand, Erin Brockovich wasn’t just a movie.”
On June 16, the Rhode Island General Assembly killed a bill that would have outlawed smoking in restaurants, bars, pool halls, bowling alleys and virtually all other workplaces in the state.
The smoke-free workplaces legislation was a reincarnation of a bill that has come before lawmakers numerous times in recent years, and it came closer to becoming law than it ever has in the past. The Senate passed the measure by a 25-to-7 vote after the House Labor Committee voted down the measure, 7-to-5, in April.
Many restaurant and bar owners and workers, tourism officials and lawmakers who opposed the bill said that banning smoking in public places would violate people’s civil liberties and that outlawing smoking in restaurants and bars would devastate the state’s hospitality and tourism industries.
Rhode Island is surrounded by states that have enacted smoke-free workplace legislation. Recently, the Massachusetts Senate approved a statewide smoking ban and Connecticut passed a similar bill. California, New York, Delaware, Florida and Oklahoma also banned public smoking.
Neither Morgera’s office nor Servant would comment on when the class-action
suit might be filed in federal court.
For the complete current issue, visit our subscription Web site, or call (401) 273-2201, ext. 227 or 234.
