A $79.5-million jury verdict against tobacco company Philip Morris in a sick-smoker case has been accepted for review by the U.S. Supreme Court, the Oregonian reported May 31.

The high court will decide whether the punitive damages award should be reduced; the award exceeds a standard compensatory-to-punitives ratio suggested by the Supreme Court a few years ago. But with new two justices and complicated ideological splits, observers are unsure how the court will rule in the case.

The jury award is the largest currently pending against a tobacco company. Lawyers for Philip Morris praised the high court for taking on the appeal. The 1999 verdict called for the tobacco company to pay $821,486 in compensatory damages and $79.5 million in punitive damages to the family of cancer victim Jesse Williams. The Supreme Court previously said that punitive damages should generally be no more than nine times compensatory damages.

In 2003, the Supreme Court told the Oregon courts to review the award, but the Oregon courts ruled that the behavior of the tobacco company was so bad that the award should stand.  "Philip Morris's conduct here was extraordinarily reprehensible, by any measure of which we are aware," wrote Oregon Supreme Court Justice Michael Gillette. "It put a significant number of victims at profound risk for an extended period of time."

A decision in the case could come later this year or early next year.