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Altria Gets High Court Hearing on $79.5 Million Award (Update4) 

The U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear arguments for the second time from Altria Group Inc.'s Philip Morris USA unit, the country's largest cigarette maker, on a $79.5 million award in an Oregon smoker lawsuit.

The decision to hear the company's appeal averts, at least for now, what would be a record payment in an individual smoker case. The award to a smoker's widow has grown to more than $140 million with interest.

Philip Morris and its corporate allies say lower courts around the country are ignoring Supreme Court rulings putting limits on punitive damages. In the latest case, the justices will decide whether an Oregon court, reconsidering the case on orders from the Supreme Court, improperly relied on a state-law ground in reaffirming the award.

The Oregon court ruling ``is symptomatic of the disregard that some state courts show for precedents of this court that protect the rights of locally unpopular defendants against arbitrary punitive damages awards,'' the U.S. Chamber of Commerce argued in a court filing.

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