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Decided on September 22, 2004
Supreme Court, New York County

102765/1998
Charles Edward Ramos, J.
Defendant moves, pursuant to CPLR 3212, for summary judgment dismissing the complaint.
Background
Deena Soloway commenced this action on or about February 13, 1998. Soloway was born in 1969, and allegedly began smoking cigarettes in 1982, when she was 13 years old. She allegedly smoked Marlboro Lights, a brand of cigarettes manufactured and sold by defendant Philip Morris Incorporated. Soloway continued to smoke until some time before May 14, 1996, when she was diagnosed with lung cancer. The cancer spread to Soloway's brain and kidneys, and she died on February 26, 1998, when she was 28 years old. Her mother, Susan Levine, was thereafter substituted as plaintiff, in her capacity as administratrix of Soloway's estate.
The complaint asserts four causes of action. The first cause of action, for negligence, alleges that defendant failed to exercise reasonable care in the design, manufacture, marketing, and distribution of Marlboro Lights, because defendant: designed and manufactured Marlboro Lights so that they were carcinogenic, addictive, and unreasonably dangerous; targeted minors, like Soloway, with its marketing and advertising for Marlboro Lights, despite the fact that the laws of New York State prohibit the sale of tobacco products to minors; and failed to take reasonable steps, in its design, manufacture, marketing, and distribution of Marlboro Lights cigarettes, to minimize the risk that they would be used by minors.
The second cause of action, for strict product liability, alleges that Marlboro Lights cigarettes were "defective and not reasonably safe for the uses for which they were intended, [although] it was feasible to design those products in a safer manner" (Complaint,

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