Court Opinion

ID: 9692711
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 16:01:37.85978+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:19:36.315173
License: Public Domain

Justice, CASTILLE,
concurring.
I join the Majority Opinion. I write separately only to note that I was the lone dissenter to our decision in Wertz v. Chapman Township, 559 Pa. 630, 741 A.2d 1272 (1999). I did not agree with the approach or conclusion in Wertz, as to both the question of statutory construction and the constitutional question, and I continue to believe what I expressed in dissent. I recognize that the insurance bad faith statute here, 42 Pa.C.S. § 8371, is not the same statute as was at issue in Wertz and, thus, this case is not strictly controlled by stare decisis. Nevertheless, as the Majority accurately notes, the statutes are remarkably similar for purposes of the statutory interpretation issue presently facing the Court. Op. at 1156 (“the very factors that led us to conclude that there was no right to a jury trial in Wertz are also present in this case”). This is so much the case that, after careful consideration, I am convinced that there is an insufficient distinction between the two as to warrant distinction of, or departure from, Wertz. In addition, the approach to the constitutional question in Wertz was so very narrow, see Wertz, 741 A.2d at 1280-81 (Castille, *283J., dissenting), that fidelity to the decision necessarily requires rejection of the constitutional claim raised here.
Returning to the question of statutory construction, I believe that declining to follow Wertz here would work a greater mischief than attempting to distinguish it. In this regard, I note that the Wertz opinion itself recognized that, if the statutory construction approach adopted there was a mistaken assessment of legislative intent, the General Assembly is in a position to remedy the matter:
Based upon the legislature’s silence on the issue of the availability of a jury trial, together with the affirmative use of the term “court,” and the lack of any legislative history to the contrary, we conclude that the General Assembly did not intend for a plaintiff to have a right to trial by jury for claims under the PHRA [Pennsylvania Human Relations Act]. Of course, we recognize the difficulty in ascertaining the General Assembly’s intent where the statute provides no express answer. However, we are secure in the knowledge that if we are mistaken as to the legislature’s intent, the General Assembly may simply amend the PHRA to realize any heretofore unstated legal right that it contemplated. 741 A.2d at 1275. This observation concerning the PHRA is no less true of the statute sub judice. If this Court has misapprehended legislative intent, the General Assembly may cure the matter.
Finally, in this instance at least, I am satisfied that my disagreement ab initio with the precedent at issue is an insufficient ground upon which to depart from it. Although I ultimately did not agree with the Wertz analysis of the statutory construction issue, I deemed that issue to be a close one, upon which reasonable minds might disagree. Indeed, the bulk of my dissent in Wertz was devoted to the state constitutional implications of the majority decision. Whether Wertz was right or wrong on the statutory construction question, I think it is important that our approach to these matters be consistent. Accordingly, and because I believe that the Majority Opinion carefully and faithfully applies the teaching of Wertz and, in so doing, provides both reinforcement and *284further guidance as to the approach lower courts should follow when faced with similar questions under other statutes, I tender my joinder.