Court Opinion

ID: 9764068
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 03:09:06.530321+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:29:53.021416
License: Public Domain

POPOVICH, Judge,
dissenting:
I cannot join the Majority’s conclusion that the award of delay damages is to be affirmed against the appellant (Moxon), despite the trial court’s determination, following a hearing on the matter, that neither the appellee nor the appellant was found to be “at fault” in bringing the case to completion.
The trial court conducted a hearing on the delay damages question in compliance with the dictates of Craig v. Magee Memorial Rehabilitation Center, 512 Pa. 60, 515 A.2d 1350 (1986), an opinion in which the Supreme Court noted that the imposition of delay damages without a finding of fault undermined the constitutionality of former Pa.R.Civ.P. 238 delay damages. As a result, the Craig Court outlined certain factors that were to be taken into consideration in assessing the imposition of delay damages, not the least of which was the presence of “fault” by the party against whom damages were entered.
To this writer, justification for the issuance of delay damages at a time when Craig was extant, and given the factual setting of the absence of “fault” by either party, should not be affirmed. See Baker v. S. & L. Service Co., 381 Pa.Super. 637, 554 A.2d 565 (1989) (Dissenting Opinion by Popovich, J.), petition for allocatur filed March 23, 1989.
The drafting of new Rule 238 by the Civil Procedural Rules Committee, adopted by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court and ordered to become effective November 7, 1988, seems to be nothing more than a return to the former Rule *92238 where delay damages were allowed by merely showing that the award was 125% more than the offer by the defendant. This sort of numerical calculation of delay damages was condemned specifically by the Supreme Court, yet we see it surfacing again in new Rule 238 if one ignores the statements made by the Craig Court.
In other words, I read the law as composed of both Craig and new Rule 238 in assessing the delay damages question, since I interpret Craig to co-exist with new Rule 238 and not be supplanted by it. As such, I would hold that the trial court contravened the holding in Craig in molding the verdict in favor of the plaintiff to include delay damages where the defendant was held to be not at fault in bringing the case to fruition.
Consequently, I respectfully dissent to the Majority’s affirmance of the award of delay damages.