OPINION Justice SAYLOR. In this appeal, we consider whether a physician who treats prison inmates has a duty at common law to warn specific corrections officers that a particular inmate has a communicable disease. I. Background Appellee Michelle Seebold filed suit against Appellant Prison Health Services, Inc. ("PHS"), advancing a single cause of action expressly grounded on negligence theory. According to the complaint, in January 2005 PHS was providing medical services at the State...
ORDER PER CURIAM. AND NOW, this 28th day of December, 2012, the appeal is dismissed as having been improvidently granted. Justice ORIE MELVIN did not participate in the consideration or decision of this case.
OPINION Justice BAER. We granted review to consider whether the "voluntary layoff option" proviso ("VLO Proviso") contained in Section 402(b) of the Unemployment Compensation Law ("UC Law"), 43 P.S. 802(b), 1 permits employees to receive unemployment compensation benefits when they accept an early retirement plan offered pursuant to an employer-initiated workforce reduction. Upon application of our rules of statutory construction, we reverse the decision of the Commonwealth Court and...
OPINION Chief Justice CASTILLE. The Commonwealth appeals from the opinion and order of the Superior Court, affirming the order of the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County granting appellee relief from his murder conviction pursuant to the Post Conviction Relief Act ("PCRA"), 42 Pa.C.S. 9541-9546. The courts below held that appellee's trial counsel was ineffective for failing to challenge the jury instructions at appellee's 1993 trial for first-degree murder and related charges....
OPINION Justice EAKIN. James Baldwin appeals from the order of the Superior Court affirming his judgment of sentence for first degree murder and abuse of a corpse. Finding the trial court did not abuse its discretion in denying appellant's request to testify on his own behalf, after the evidentiary phase of the trial was closed, and after he waived such right the previous day, we affirm. On January 25, 2006, appellant and his roommate, Brendan Martin, had an altercation when appellant...
OPINION Justice TODD. We granted allowance of appeal in this consolidated case to consider whether a plaintiff may recover delay damages on the full amount of a jury verdict in his favor, or whether delay damages are limited to the amount of the legally-recoverable molded verdict, as it was adjusted by the court to reflect insurance policy limits. For the reasons that follow, we hold that a plaintiff may recover delay damages only on the amount of legally-recoverable damages to which he is...
OPINION Justice TODD. In this appeal, our Court granted review to determine whether Appellee, the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority ("SEPTA"), may be considered an "arm" of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania which, under the Eleventh Amendment to the United States Constitution, would confer upon SEPTA sovereign immunity from lawsuits brought by injured employees of its Regional Rail Division under the Federal Employees Liability Act ("FELA") 45 U.S.C. 51-60. 1 After...
OPINION Justice BAER. This appeal arises in the context of a medical malpractice action brought by Thomas Bruckshaw, (Appellant), as Administrator of the Estate of Patricia Bruckshaw (Decedent) and in his own right, against Frankford Hospital of Philadelphia (Frankford Hospital), Jefferson Health System, Inc., Brian P. Priest, M.D., and Randy Metcalf, M.D. (collectively, Appellees). We granted review of the following issue, as stated by Appellant: Whether a court is empowered to remove a...
OPINION Justice SAYLOR. The main issue accepted for review is whether, under requirements imposed by the General Assembly, a pathologist was competent to testify as an expert witness regarding the standard of care in a medical malpractice action asserted against a board-certified general surgeon. We also consider whether the defendant-surgeon's objection to testimony from the pathologist should have been deemed waived, since it was first asserted at trial, rather than by way of an earlier...
OPINION Justice McCAFFERY. The issue in this discretionary appeal is whether a police officer violates the Pennsylvania Wiretapping and Electronic Surveillance Act ("Wiretap Act" or "Act"), 18 Pa.C.S. 5701, et seq., when he communicates directly with a suspect via cell phone text messages while pretending to be the suspect's accomplice. 1 Because an officer who directly communicates with another person by text-messaging is not eavesdropping or listening in on a conversation, but is...
OPINION Chief Justice CASTILLE. These are cross-appeals in a capital matter from the Order of the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County granting partial relief under the Post Conviction Relief Act ("PCRA"), 42 Pa.C.S. 9541-9546. 1 The Commonwealth appeals the PCRA court's order insofar as it grants relief on Jose DeJesus's claim that he is ineligible for the death penalty under Atkins v. Virginia, 536 U.S. 304 , 122 S.Ct. 2242, 153 L.Ed.2d 335 (2002), because he is mentally...
OPINION Chief Justice CASTILLE. 1 This is a capital appeal from the order of the Court of Common Pleas of Monroe County denying appellant Manuel Marcus Sepulveda's petition for relief under the Post Conviction Relief Act ("PCRA"), 42 Pa.C.S. 9541-9546. For the reasons that follow, we remand for further, limited proceedings before the PCRA court. A. BACKGROUND The facts underlying appellant's sentences of death are discussed more fully in appellant's direct appeal, Commonwealth v....
OPINION Justice SAYLOR. In this capital post-conviction matter, Carolyn Ann King appeals from an order denying guilt-phase relief but granting a new sentencing hearing. This Court has previously set forth the underlying facts. Briefly, on September 15, 1993, Appellant's co-defendant Bradley Martin received a prison visitation pass that allowed him to leave the Lebanon County prison where he was incarcerated. He met Appellant, with whom he was romantically involved, and failed to return to...
OPINION Justice BAER. We granted allowance of appeal in this case to determine, as a matter of first impression for this Court, whether a defendant in a products liability action must plead and prove as an affirmative defense that an injured party's alleged "highly reckless conduct" was the sole or superseding cause of the plaintiff's injuries. For the reasons that follow, we agree with the Superior Court that, in order to avoid liability, a defendant raising a claim of highly reckless...
OPINION Justice McCAFFERY. The question presented here is whether a criminal defendant's right to be present in the courtroom at every critical stage of his or her trial, including during the impaneling of a jury, categorically mandates the defendant's personal ability to hear each venireperson who is questioned at sidebar during voir dire proceedings conducted by the court, his counsel, and the prosecuting attorney as to substantive issues. We conclude that it does not based upon the...
ORDER PER CURIAM. Applicant, Hubert L. Michael, Jr., seeks to challenge refusals by the Court of Common Pleas of York County and the Commonwealth Court to enter orders staying his execution, scheduled for November 8, 2012. Some eighteen years ago, Applicant killed sixteen-year-old Trista Eng. In 1995, he pled guilty to first-degree murder and was sentenced to death. He has exhausted avenues and/or opportunities for post-conviction merits review in the state and federal court systems. On...
OPINION Justice McCAFFERY. This is a direct appeal from a judgment of sentence of death on one count of first-degree murder. We affirm. On September 18, 2007, a jury found Donte Thomas ("Appellant") guilty of first-degree murder in the February 3, 2006 shooting death of Tyreese Gaymon a/k/a Tyreese Allen ("Gaymon/Allen"). 1 The Commonwealth's theory of the case was that Appellant shot Gaymon/Allen at the behest of Appellant's friend Kareem Glass, also known as "Gus" ("Glass/Gus"),...
OPINION Justice BAER. Following several evidentiary hearings in this post-conviction capital case, the Court of Common Pleas of Berks County ("PCRA court") dismissed the petition filed by Appellant Jose Busanet pursuant to the Post Conviction Relief Act ("PCRA"), 42 Pa.C.S. 9541-9546. For the reasons set forth herein, we affirm. 1 The facts underlying Appellant's conviction of first degree murder and related offenses are discussed in our opinion affirming his judgment of sentence on...
ORDER PER CURIAM. AND NOW, this 10th day of October, 2012, the Order of the Commonwealth Court is REVERSED, to the extent that it ordered that the signatures unaccompanied by a designation of the year of signing must be stricken from the nomination papers. For the reasons set forth in the dissenting opinion of Senior Judge Colins, such omissions in the context of this particular case do not constitute material defects warranting the removal of the signatures. Moreover, the interspersal...
ORDER PER CURIAM. AND NOW, this 28th day of September, 2012, the Order of the Commonwealth Court is AFFIRMED.
