Cumby’s has lost its lawsuit against a local health board after an area store was busted for offering an illegal flavored tobacco product for sale.

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has ruled in favor of the Braintree Board of Health, which has been facing this flavored tobacco suit from Cumberland Farms.

The case stems from when a Braintree tobacco and compliance inspection officer conducted a routine check at the Cumby’s on Washington Street in April of 2023.

The inspection officer reportedly spotted an open display box of Black & Mild cigars on a shelf behind the cash register. In Massachusetts, those flavored cigars have been banned, so it’s illegal to sell them.

As a result, the local board of health found that the store had violated state and local tobacco laws and regulations by offering a flavored tobacco product for sale, and fined Cumby’s $1,000.

Cumberland Farms has been fighting this punishment, arguing that the store did not intend to sell the product and its point-of-sale system would have prevented the product from being rung up and sold.

Also, Cumby’s claimed that the local board acted outside its authority in imposing the $1,000 fine, and “its proceedings were procedurally defective.”

But the SJC justices ruled against Cumby’s, and affirmed a lower court ruling for Braintree.

“We conclude that the store’s manner of placement and display of the product, which would have led a customer reasonably to conclude that the product was available for purchase, supported the board’s finding that it was being ‘offered for sale,’ ” reads the SJC ruling.

“We further conclude that the legislative and regulatory scheme governing the sale of tobacco products in Massachusetts expressly contemplates enforcement by local boards of health and permits them to administratively impose the mandatory penalties,” the court wrote. “We also conclude that no procedural irregularities fatally marred the board’s actions. We accordingly affirm the judgment of the Superior Court in this action in the nature of certiorari.”

When the Braintree health board held a public hearing about the Cumby’s violation, the store’s district manager told the board that a mistake had been made at the shipping warehouse — and he acknowledged that the product should not have been delivered to the store.

The district manager claimed that no Black & Mild cigars had actually been sold because the store’s point-of-sale system would have prevented a store clerk from ringing the product through the cash register.

The town would not withdraw the punishment, so Cumby’s filed the complaint in Superior Court.

“In Cumberland Farms’ view, an item cannot be ‘offered for sale’ if the store does not actually intend to sell it and the item cannot, in fact, be purchased. We are not persuaded,” reads the SJC ruling. “Whether a product has been offered for sale does not turn on whether the customer can, or ultimately does, purchase the product… The board thus made no error of law in finding the store had offered the cigars for sale, regardless of the store’s intent to consummate a sale.”

Menthol cigarettes and flavored tobacco were banned in Massachusetts in 2020.

Boston Police in the last couple of weeks have made big busts of illegal menthol cigarettes. A 51-year-old Alabama man was arrested for allegedly selling boxes of illegal Newport cigarettes in Dorchester’s Grove Hall neighborhood, and a Dorchester man was arrested after allegedly being found with 700 packs of unstamped menthol cigarettes.

The New England Convenience Store and Energy Marketers Association has a new report that shows the percentage of Massachusetts adult smokers who use menthol has remained virtually unchanged — despite the 2020 state ban on flavored tobacco.