Sick smokers in West Virginia are free to sue the tobacco industry after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to intervene in a class-action lawsuit.

Bloomberg reported Feb. 25 that the high court refused the industry's plea to alter a trial plan that will allow a jury to decide common trial issues before separate cases go forward on behalf of individual plaintiffs. Philip Morris, R.J. Reynolds, and Lorillard Tobacco unsuccessfully argued that the plan would leave them "wholly unable to defend against plaintiffs' amorphous claim for punitive damages."

Lawyers for the sick smokers, who could end up seeking billions of dollars from the industry, said the trial plan represented an efficient way to move the cases forward and give plaintiffs their day in court.

The case is slated to proceed on March 18.