The Florida Supreme Court agreed to take up a potentially far-reaching case about whether R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. could be forced to pay $16 million in punitive damages to the family of a woman who died at age 52 of lung cancer.

The estate of Lois Stucky went to the Supreme Court after the Fifth District Court of Appeal in October overturned a decision by an Orange County jury to award $16 million, calling the amount "excessive."