Massachusetts’ highest court ruled Wednesday that local public health officials do not need to go to court to impose fines on businesses violating state tobacco laws, including restrictions on the sale of flavored products.
The Supreme Judicial Court found that the $1,000 penalty imposed on convenience store chain Cumberland Farms, after a health inspector in Braintree discovered a box of “Black and Mild Jazz” cigars on a store shelf in 2023, did not violate a separate state statute requiring municipalities to seek a court complaint for penalties of that amount or higher.
Cumberland Farms had argued that the state law establishing the fine for first-time violations of tobacco laws did not create a new administrative enforcement mechanism. However, the court ruled that regulations established by the state Department of Public Health clearly allowed local health officials the option to impose fines administratively, as Braintree did, or through the courts.
Justice Gabrielle Wolohojian, writing for the court, stated that the possibility of criminal enforcement “does not foreclose an alternate civil mechanism of enforcement.”
