The Supreme Court has upheld a lower court ruling ordering corporate compensation for a victim in the nation's toxic humidifier disinfectant scandal.

In its first decision in a civil suit against one of the sterilizer's manufacturers, the top court on Thursday confirmed the ruling that partially sided with the plaintiff, identified by the surname Kim, against Oxy Reckitt Benckiser and supplier Hanbit Chemical.

The bench noted that the probe by the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency(KDCA) categorizing the plaintiff as unlikely to have suffered harm from the product only considered lung disease centered on distal bronchus due to the sterilizer.

It said a ruling on causality between use of the product and development and worsening of a disease in a damages suit could change depending on a detailed demonstration by the consumer, adding that the appellate ruling contained no errors.

Kim, who had used the Oxy disinfectant between November 2007 and April 2011, was diagnosed with interstitial lung disease in May 2013 but was classified by the KDCA in the Grade Three "Low Possibility" category in terms of causality the following year.

While the first court ruled against the plaintiff, the appeals court ordered the defendants to pay compensation of five million won, or around 38-hundred U.S. dollars, citing faults in product design and labeling.

As of July this year, five-thousand-41 people were confirmed to have suffered harm after using the toxic products dating back to 1994.