OPINION Chief Justice CASTILLE. This is a pro se capital appeal from the Order of the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County denying appellant's petition for relief under the Post Conviction Relief Act ("PCRA"), 42 Pa.C.S. 9541-9546. For the reasons that follow, we affirm. On November 12, 1991, a jury sitting before the Honorable Ricardo C. Jackson convicted appellant of first-degree murder, aggravated assault, and possessing an instrument of crime. The convictions arose from...
OPINION Justice McCAFFERY. This case originated as an employment dispute sounding in, inter alia, breach of contract. The issue before this Court is whether a damages award for lost future income derived from business profits should be discounted to present value. The relevant facts are as follows. Mark L. Helpin, D.M.D., ("Dr. Helpin") accepted a position in 1989 at the School of Dental Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, with primary responsibilities as the Director of Pediatric...
OPINION Justice BAER. We granted allocatur in these consolidated appeals to determine whether the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board ("PLCB") erred by authorizing five restaurants, each of which is interconnected to a supermarket, to sell beer for consumption on the premises, as well as in limited quantities for takeout purposes. The parties agree that each premises constitutes a "restaurant" as defined by Section 102 of the Liquor Code, 47 P.S. 1-102. 1 Thus, our inquiry focuses on...
ORDER PER CURIAM. AND NOW, this 17th day of November, 2010, the Order of the Commonwealth Court is AFFIRMED.
OPINION Justice BAER. We granted allowance of appeal in this case to determine whether individual plaintiffs, who have suffered bodily injury or death due to exposure to asbestos, have standing to raise constitutional challenges under the Commerce and Equal Protection Clauses of the United States Constitution to a state statute, which limits the potential liability in asbestos litigation of certain Pennsylvania corporations. For the reasons that follow, we hold that the plaintiffs herein do...
OPINION Justice TODD. A provision of the Pennsylvania Minimum Wage Act of 1968 (the "Act") 1 exempts from the statute's minimum wage and overtime requirements employment for "[d]omestic services in or about the private home of the employer." 43 P.S. 333.105(a)(2). A regulation promulgated by Appellee, Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry (the "Department"), defines "domestic services" as "[w]ork in or about a private dwelling for an employer in his capacity as a householder, as...
OPINION Chief Justice CASTILLE. In this direct capital appeal, which has yet to be briefed, appellant Andre Staton's court-appointed counsel Thomas N. Farrell, Esquire (hereafter "counsel"), filed a Motion to Withdraw on July 21, 2010, alleging that appellant sent correspondence to counsel "terminating" counsel's representation. Counsel believed that appellant's correspondence created an obligation to move to withdraw. On the merits of the motion, however, counsel forwards a novel and cogent...
ORDER PER CURIAM. AND NOW, this 4th day of October, 2010, the order of the Commonwealth Court, which granted objectors-appellees' Petition to Set Aside candidate-appellant Carl Stevenson's Nominating Paper 1 and ordered the Secretary of the Commonwealth to strike appellant's name from the general election ballot for the office of State Representative in the 134th Legislative District, is hereby VACATED and the case is REMANDED for an immediate hearing to determine the individual...
OPINION Justice SAYLOR. This is a direct appeal from the order of the Commonwealth Court upholding the constitutionality of certain portions of Act 45 of 2007, which amended Pennsylvania's Public School Code of 1949. 1 According to the facts as stipulated by the parties, in July 2000, then-Secretary of Education Eugene W. Hickok notified the Duquesne City School District ("Duquesne") that, due to its history of low test performance, it was being placed on the education empowerment list, as...
OPINION ON REARGUMENT Justice TODD. The background of this matter, in which we granted reargument, is set forth in Freed v. Geisinger Medical Center, et al., 601 Pa. 233, 971 A.2d 1202 (2009), wherein this Court affirmed the Superior Court's reversal of the trial court's grant of a compulsory nonsuit in favor of Defendants Geisinger Medical Center and HealthSouth Corporation (collectively, "Geisinger"). Therein, we addressed whether, as a matter law, a nurse may testify in a...
OPINION Chief Justice CASTILLE. Petitioners, the City of Philadelphia's Board of Revision of Taxes ("the BRT") and Charlesretta Meade, Robert N.C. Nix, III, Russell M. Nigro, Alan K. Silberstein, Howard M. Goldsmith, and Anthony Lewis, Jr., individually and in their official capacities as BRT members, filed in this Court an application for leave to file original process, which we grant, and an application for the "Exercise of Original Jurisdiction and King's Bench Power" over this lawsuit...
OPINION Chief Justice CASTILLE. This appeal of the trial court's order denying the motion of appellant Janssen Pharmaceutica, Inc. ("Janssen") to disqualify contingent fee counsel retained by appellee, the Commonwealth's Office of General Counsel ("OGC"), is before this Court on a grant of extraordinary relief pursuant to 42 Pa.C.S. 726, 1 by which we exercised jurisdiction to consider the possible statutory and constitutional implications of the contingent fee representation agreement...
OPINION Justice BAER. 1 This capital case involves cross-appeals from the order of the Court of Common Pleas of Lebanon County, which denied Bradley Martin's guilt phase claims under the Post Conviction Relief Act (PCRA), 42 Pa.C.S. 9541-9546, but granted a new penalty hearing on the grounds that trial counsel was ineffective for failing to investigate and present mitigating evidence. For the reasons that follow, we affirm. Facts and Procedural History On September 15, 1993, while...
