Nation IN BRIEF : MASSACHUSETTS : Stores to Check Age of Cigarette Buyers

Customers of certain New England convenience stores will have to prove they are of legal age to buy cigarettes, under a settlement announced in Boston, Richard Daynard, a Northeastern University law professor who chairs the Tobacco Product Liability Project, said the agreement settle a lawsuit his group filed in 1987 against the Waltham-based Store 24 chain. The suit alleged that two teen-agers were sold cigarettes in the chain’s 109 outlets in violation of Massachusetts’ ban on tobacco sales to anyone under 18. Daynard said the retailer agreed to require proof of age, and to carry out “appropriate internal monitoring” of clerks’ compliance. He said the state law against selling cigarettes to minors is rarely enforced.