The state Supreme Court will take up DuPont's appeal of a multi-million dollar Harrison County civil lawsuit. The group voted 4-1 to hear full arguments on the case next year.

A jury ruled against DuPont last year in connection with the company's old zinc smelting plant in the community of Spelter. The jury ordered DuPont to pay $55 million in remediation costs, $130 million in medical monitoring and $196.2 million in punitive damages.

DuPont attorney David Thomas told the High Court Wednesday opinions from the U.S. Supreme Court require the state Supreme Court to review cases with large punitive damage awards. "DuPont suggests that this is exactly the kind of case that deserves this court's full review."

Justice Robin Davis, who questioned Thomas' claim Wednesday, voted against taking up the appeal.

Justice Larry Starcher said Wednesday the Supreme Court should put the DuPont case on its argument docket along with other large punitive damage cases. "I think we made a mistake in not taking in Wheeling Steel. I think we made a mistake in not taking in the oil and gas case from my home county, Roane County and I've advocated for 12 years that we would take in and give a full hearing to every life without mercy case," Starcher said.

"I'm going to vote your case in," Starcher told Thomas. "Not on the merits of anything you say, but on the size of the verdict. I think anything of this magnitude needs another look."

The Supreme Court also voted 3-1 in to hear an appeal case from the plaintiffs in the DuPont case. They say more plaintiffs should be added to the lawsuit.

The cases will be combined and argued sometime early next year.