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• Supreme Court orders new punitive damage trial in $20 million tobacco case 

-A jury erred in awarding a $20 million judgment against cigarette maker Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp., the Missouri Supreme Court has signaled by remanding the case back to a lower court.

The judgment was overturned by a state appeals court in August 2007. The appeals court found that the award was excessive. The appeals court remanded the case back to a Jackson County judge for a new decision on punitive damages.

But the state's highest court sent the case Thursday back to the three-member appeals court without explanation . . .

Among other things, attorneys for Brown & Williamson argue the punitive damages awarded by the jury were excessive because they were 40 times greater than the compensatory award.

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