A class-action lawsuit against the tobacco industry will be reviewed by the West Virginia Supreme Court, the Charleston Daily Mail reported Nov. 6.

The court is set to review a decision by Ohio County Circuit Court Judge Arthur Recht, who tasked a jury to determine potential punitive damages prior to the trial proceeding. Tobacco-industry lawyers objected, calling Recht's approach a "relic of the past."

Lawyers for the plaintiffs in the case accused the industry of stall tactics in a case that already has gone on for a decade. They also say that the Supreme Court upheld a similar trial plan by Recht in a 2005 case.

The case pits more than a thousand smokers against Philip Morris USA, Brown & Williamson, R.J. Reynolds, and Lorillard Tobacco. The plaintiffs allege that the companies engaged in fraud, civil conspiracy and general negligence in marketing cigarettes, contributing to a roster of 24 injuries and illnesses suffered by class members.