The Supreme Court will consider whether to keep alive the largest job discrimination case in U.S. history, a lawsuit against Wal-Mart that grew from a half-dozen women to a class action that could involve billions of dollars for more than a half million female workers.

Wal-Mart is trying to halt the lawsuit, with the backing of many other big companies concerned about rules for class-action cases — those in which people with similar interests increase their leverage by joining in a single claim. Class actions against discount seller Costco and the tobacco industry are among pending claims that the high court’s decision might alter.

The suit against Wal-Mart Stores Inc. contends that women at Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club stores are paid less and promoted less often than men. The case the high court accepted on Monday will not examine whether the claims are true, only whether they can be tried together.

Estimates of the size of the class range from 500,000 to 1.5 million women who work or once worked for Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart, based in Bentonville, Ark., is appealing a ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco that the class-action lawsuit could go to trial.

Tobacco giant Altria Corp., Bank of America Corp., Dole Food Company Inc., General Electric Co., Intel Corp., Pepsico Inc. and United Parcel Service Inc. are among the companies that also called for high court review of the case.

A federal judge in Maine yesterday denied class-action status to four lawsuits accusing Philip Morris USA of misleading smokers about the health risks of light cigarettes.

The ruling by U.S. District Judge John A. Woodcock Jr. concerns lawsuits that were filed in Illinois, Maine, California and Washington, D.C., alleging that Henrico County-based Philip Morris USA marketed light cigarettes as healthier than regular cigarettes in violation of various consumer-protection and false-advertising laws.

The lawsuits are among 15 cases that were consolidated for pre-trial proceedings in federal court. In his ruling, Woodcock said the plaintiffs had not met the requirements for class-action status.

"While the judge has yet to rule on the remaining cases in the multidistrict litigation, we believe this decision should serve as a persuasive authority in denying class certification in those and other similar cases as well," said Murray Garnick, senior vice president and associate general counsel for Philip Morris USA parent company Altria Group Inc.

The federal court ruling in Maine yesterday was in contrast to a decision in a separate lawsuit in New Hampshire state court Monday.

In that case, a superior court judge granted class-action status to a lawsuit against Philip Morris USA over its marketing of light cigarettes. A spokesman for Philip Morris USA said the company will appeal that decision to the New Hampshire Supreme Court.

A class-action lawsuit contends that Citizens Property Insurance Corp. improperly awarded dozens of no-bid contracts worth more than $49 million.

The lawsuit filed Thursday in Tallahassee seeks unspecified damages for the 1.2 million Citizens policyholders. The attorney who filed the complaint says the alleged mismanagement costs policyholders in higher rates.

Citizens is supposed to take competitive bids for all contracts above $25,000, except in emergencies or when there is one vendor. The lawsuit says 33 contracts since 2004 have violated those rules.

A Citizens statement said all 33 contracts in question were properly awarded.

The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California has dismissed a class action suit against NVIDIA that accused the company of trying to hide its knowledge of defects in a line of graphics chips, in order to keep the stock price up.

In a strongly-worded opinion, Judge Richard Seeborg said the plaintiffs did not establish that there was any evidence that the company knew that its chips were defective. Further, the opinion notes that some of the evidence presented by witnesses was from people who did not work at the company and were not in a position to know if the chips were defective or not.

Judge Seeborg gave the plaintiffs 30 days to file an amended complaint, or have it dismissed and the plaintiffs barred from re-filing another suit.

The original lawsuit was filed in 2008, by Lisa Miller, and the class action suit eventually included two union pension funds and the retirement fund of the city of Pontiac, Mich. The suit covered those who bought NVIDIA's stock between Nov.2, 2007 and July 2, 2008.

Taking a final shot before meeting in court, lawyers for Greenwich Hospital are rejecting a claim that the hospital violated fair trade policies in their handling of a drug-addicted surgeon.

Earlier this year, the hospital asked a judge to strike the central claims of lawsuit, arguing that the class action lawsuit does not make a "cognizable claim" under the Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices Act. If granted, the lawsuit will be defeated.

"Plaintiff's changing legal theories and lack of candor on the applicable law demonstrate that they are struggling to stay alive in the face of the hospital's well-founded motion to strike," states the recently filed motion.

The original complaint, filed in 2008 in state Superior Court, alleges that the hospital violated state trade laws by ignoring Dr. Ian Rubins' drug problems to maintain the profitability of their specialized breast center. Rubins, a private plastic surgeon who had privileges at the hospital, died of a heroin overdose in 2008, just months after the state medical examining board suspended his license. Rubins had a string of incidents involving substance abuse and had entered rehabilitation programs several times while at the hospital.

Five of the 11 defendants in an alleged $20.5 million mortgage fraud scheme purportedly involving former Dallas Cowboys linebacker Eugene Lockhart have pleaded guilty.

The U.S. Attorney's Office in Dallas said Wednesday that four of the defendants have entered guilty pleas or are scheduled to do so this month. A fifth defendant pleaded guilty in February.

Lockhart and the remaining five defendants opted for a trial. An Oct. 18 trial date was postponed and hasn't been reset.

Lockhart and the others are accused of making 54 fraudulent loan closings for single-family homes in the Dallas area totaling about $20.5 million.

The 49-year-old Lockhart, who lives in suburban Carrollton, is on supervised released.