Pennsylvania Superior Court holds that trial court correctly entered nonsuit on plaintiff’s corporate negligence claim for failing to show actual or constructive knowledge....more
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court recently gave consumers a huge win by allowing them to recover both treble damages and punitive damages under Pennsylvania’s Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Law (UTPCPL)....more
Dinardo v. Kohler, 304 A.3d 1187 (Pa. 2023) - Both the trial court and the Superior Court found that the plaintiff’s claims were barred by the no felony conviction recovery rule. The plaintiff filed a medical malpractice suit...more
In Brown v. City of Oil City, No. 6 WAP 2022, 2023 Pa. LEXIS 681 (2023), the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania (Supreme Court) recently held that a contractor can be liable for dangerous conditions it creates even if the hazard...more
On August 25, 2022, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania issued an Order amending Rules 1006, 2130, 2156, and 2179 of the Pennsylvania Rules of Civil Procedure, all of which pertain to venue in civil actions. The court’s...more
A Pennsylvania federal court has again asked that the state’s Supreme Court clarify whether, and to what extent, medical device manufacturers are immune from strict liability claims by virtue of the “unavoidably unsafe...more
It has been almost seven years since Tincher v. Omega Flex Inc. was decided by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. The Tincher court left much unanswered but called on Pennsylvania’s lower courts, the legal academy and the bar to...more
Dittman v. UPMC, 196 A.3d 1036 (Pa. 2018). The Pennsylvania Supreme Court holds that employers have a legal duty to use reasonable care to safeguard sensitive personal information of their employees when the employer chooses...more
Welcome to the second 2019 issue of Product Lines – our quarterly e-newsletter that focuses on toxic torts and products liability issues. For this edition, we are reporting on several important and timely legal issues. As...more
Now a business that was hacked may be successfully sued under state common law by data subjects whose information was compromised in the crime. For the first time, a state supreme court has held that a company that was...more
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court recently held that employers have “a legal duty to safeguard” the personal data of their employees which is stored on internet-accessible computer systems and that the economic loss doctrine...more
In finding a common law duty to protect employees’ personal data, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has unexpectedly, and dramatically, altered the contours of the data breach litigation landscape....more
In a landmark decision with far-reaching implication, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court recently held that employers have an affirmative duty to protect their employees’ personal information from criminal hacking. In particular,...more
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has drastically changed the data breach litigation landscape by holding that an employer has a common law duty to use reasonable care to safeguard its employees' personal information stored on...more
While most Americans prepared for the Thanksgiving holiday, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court issued an opinion that establishes new precedent in the ever-developing area of cybersecurity law, and also limits a longstanding tort...more
The Pennsylvania Political Subdivision Tort Claims Act (PSTCA), 42 Pa. C.S.A. §§ 8541, et seq. generally provides local governmental agencies in Pennsylvania with qualified immunity for tort liability. However, this statute...more
Elliot-Lewis Corp. v. Skanska USA Building, Inc., 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 98405 (E.D. Pa. July 27, 2015) - This dispute arises out of a major renovation and expansion of the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia (the...more
Over the summer, this blog reported on how the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania managed to parse an employer’s liability exclusion to find that it did not exclude claims by employees of additional insureds. As the leaves started...more
Kennedy v. Allstate, No. 15-2221 (E.D. Pa. July 8, 2015). District Court recognizes possibility that insurance adjusters owe a duty of care to insureds that would be breached by failing to conduct a reasonable...more
Gongloff Contracting, L.L.C. v. L. Robert Kimball & Assocs., Architects and Eng’rs, Inc., 2015 Pa. Super 149 (Pa. Super. Ct. July 8, 2015) - Pennsylvania law generally bars negligence claims when the injured party has...more
Creating a private cause of action in negligence for data breaches could result in the filing each year of possibly hundreds of thousands of lawsuits by persons whose confidential information may be in the hands of third...more