EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. – A U.S. Supreme Court decision to uphold a ruling dismissing a $10 billion verdict against Philip Morris USA ends a case that became a windfall for the county where it originated but helped feed its reputation as a “judicial hellhole.”

In its order Monday without comment, the nation’s high court stood by last year’s Illinois Supreme Court ruling throwing out the massive fraud judgment against Philip Morris USA, a unit of Altria Group Inc., in a class-action lawsuit involving “light” cigarettes.

“This closes a chapter on one of the sorry situations that came out of Madison County,” said Ed Murnane, the Illinois Civil Justice League’s president. “The book is back on the shelf, almost like (the lawsuit) never happened.”

The southwest Illinois county just east of St. Louis has become known as a place where lawyers from across the country file cases hoping for big payouts in cases involving everything from asbestos exposure to medical malpractice. Some plaintiffs have been awarded tens of millions of dollars.

But Murnane said he hopes the decision in this case discourages other attorneys from filing such class-action lawsuits here.

The lawsuit, involving 1.1 million people who bought “light” cigarettes in Illinois, claimed Philip Morris knew when it introduced such cigarettes in 1971 that they were no healthier than regular cigarettes. But the company hid that information and the fact that light cigarettes actually had a more toxic form of tar, the suit claimed.

A Madison County judge ruled in favor of the smokers in March 2003, saying the company misled customers into believing they were buying a less harmful cigarette.

But the state high court overturned that ruling, saying that, because the Federal Trade Commission allowed companies to characterize their cigarettes as “light” and “low tar,” Philip Morris could not be held financially liable under state law even if the terms it used could be found false or misleading.