WASHINGTON (AFP) — The US Supreme Court said Monday it would examine for the third time an appeal by tobacco giant Philip Morris against a huge 79.5 million dollar award to the widow of a long-time Marlboro smoker.

An Oregon court in 1999 found that advertising campaigns by Philip Morris denying that smoking posed a health risk were partly to blame for the death of heavy smoker Jesse Williams from lung cancer two years earlier.

The Oregon jury awarded two types of damages to his widow: 520,000 dollars in compensation for the loss of her husband and 79.5 million dollars in punitive damages against Philip Morris.

With interest, the sum has ballooned today to close to 145 million dollars.

In 2003 the Supreme Court annulled the ruling saying punitive damages could not be 10 times higher than individual compensation and urged lower courts to recalculate the amount.

But the Oregon Supreme Court re-issued the award in 2006 saying the harm done to the state’s smokers represented an exceptional circumstance.

The case was brought back before the Supreme Court, which last year again overturned the Oregon court ruling saying juries considering damage claims could focus only on the harm done to the individual involved in the case and not “strangers to the litigation.”

Not to be cowed, Oregon’s top court once again took up the cause and invoked a point of state law to re-issue the award.

On Monday the US Supreme Court said it would examine the case yet again after its summer recess. This time it will not focus on the amount of the award, but whether the Oregon court had the authority to disobey its ruling.