Opinion ID: 2297606
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Weight and Credibility Determinations

Text: As Appellee asserts, this case presents obstacles to addressing threshold risk-utility balancing, since there is every indication that the trial court never performed this function on a pre-trial basis in the first instance. Nevertheless, under prevailing Pennsylvania law as has been determined by the highest court to address the matter to date, in absence of overt pre-trial risk-utility balancing, courts are to assume that the trial court properly undertook the process nonetheless. See Dougherty v. Edward J. Meloney, Inc., 443 Pa.Super. 201, 216, 661 A.2d 375, 382 (1995). [17] In terms of the Superior Court's specific review, Appellant's amicus aptly challenges the Superior Court's rejection of Dr. Georgiades' testimony that he read product inserts for the endocutter and peri-strips. See, e.g., N.T., May 16, 2007, at 235. That consideration, however, does not appear to have been a predominate one, and other than that, Appellant's complaint appears to be more with the intermediate court's balancing of factors than with more traditional weight and credibility considerations associated with true factual findings. As Appellee explains, though, Azzarello conceived such risk-utility balancing as entailing a legal determination. See Azzarello, 480 Pa. at 558, 391 A.2d at 1027. We decline, at this late juncture, to insulate a decision framed by the Court as a legal one from the attendant consequences in terms of the ensuing review. See Meyer, 606 Pa. at 543, 2 A.3d at 501 (explaining that an appellate court's review of legal determinations is plenary). [18] We do not discount Appellant's position that the Superior Court's review appears to be abbreviated and, to some extent, conclusory. Indeed, one fair perspective is that the appellate court acted simply to substitute one somewhat perfunctory analysis for another. Certainly, reasonable minds may disagree as to the respective conclusions drawn. We agree with Appellee, however, that the dearth of engineering and economic information on this record left those courts with little else to do but to draw somewhat abstract conclusions. [19] Finally, we again acknowledge the loss-spreading rationale motivating Azzarello. Nevertheless, and again, Azzarello itself sought to implement some sort of rational limits, manifested in its prescription for a meaningful risk-utility evaluation. In light of such constraint, contrary to the argument of Appellant's trial counsel to the trial judge and jury, Appellant's design defect claim was never a simple matter. Accord N.T., May 16, 2007, at 60 (reflecting the trial court's remark: Well, this is an obviously complicated case.) [20] We hold that trial courts are not restricted to considering a single use of a multi-use product in design defect, threshold, risk-utility balancing. We also decline to disturb the Superior Court's legal determination as to the appropriate risk-utility calculus. The order of the Superior Court is affirmed. Chief Justice CASTILLE, Justices EAKIN and ORIE MELVIN join the opinion.