Cite as: 505 U. S. 504 (1992)
Opinion of the Court
did not pre-empt similar common-law claims.3 Because of the manifest importance of the issue, we granted certiorari to resolve the conflict, 499 U. S. 935 (1991). We now reverse in part and affirm in part.
I
On August 1, 1983, Rose Cipollone and her husband filed a complaint invoking the diversity jurisdiction of the Federal District Court. Their complaint alleged that Rose Cipollone developed lung cancer because she smoked cigarettes manufactured and sold by the three respondents. After her death in 1984, her husband filed an amended complaint. After trial, he also died; their son, executor of both estates, now maintains this action.
Petitioner's third amended complaint alleges several different bases of recovery, relying on theories of strict liability, negligence, express warranty, and intentional tort. These claims, all based on New Jersey law, divide into five categories. The "design defect claims" allege that respondents' cigarettes were defective because respondents failed to use a safer alternative design for their products and because the social value of their product was outweighed by the dangers it created (Count 2, App. 83-84). The "failure to warn claims" allege both that the product was "defective as a result of [respondents'] failure to provide adequate warnings of the health consequences of cigarette smoking" (Count 3, App. 85) and that respondents "were negligent in the manner [that] they tested, researched, sold, promoted and advertised" their cigarettes (Count 4, App. 86). The "express warranty claims" allege that respondents had "expressly
3 Dewey v. R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., 121 N. J. 69, 577 A. 2d 1239 (1990) (holding that the Cigarette Act does not pre-empt plaintiff's failure-to-warn and misrepresentation claims); see also Forster v. R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., 437 N. W. 2d 655 (Minn. 1989) (holding that plaintiffs' claim in strict liability for unsafe design was not pre-empted; claims for misrepresentation and breach of express warranty would also not be preempted).
509
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