Court Opinion

ID: 9706946
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 01:56:08.366283+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:22:26.160507
License: Public Domain

Dissenting Opinion by
Mb. Justice Cohen :
The action of the majority again demonstrates a complete lack of judicial restraint. The author of the majority opinion granted the allocatur in this case apparently not because he disagreed with what the Superior Court had done, but rather with a preconceived design to express his views of what should be done in the myriad of cases such as this which are soon to find their way to the appellate courts. It is obvious from reading the majority opinion that the Court’s efforts in this respect have indeed been wasted because this case does not present the proper landscape in which we should render pronouncements determining the vexatious problem generated by Miss Mallatrath’s testimony. If the majority’s objective were to obviate possible future appeals in other cases in which Miss Mallatrath qualified and testified, it has certainly failed to achieve its purpose. The majority, *477by its decision, requires an analysis of the facts and circumstances of each and every case in which Miss Mallatrath’s laboratory findings were presented in order to determine whether the lack of those findings would “likely compel a different result.” Hence, the majority by failing to espouse a rule of law, and by making an ad hoc determination of the impact of her testimony on the outcome of this case, has in my view accomplished nothing more than if the allocatur had in the first instance been denied. It seems to me the majority had but two alternatives in disposing of the instant case in order to achieve the desired purpose, i.e., (1) determine that Miss Mallatrath’s testimony was admissible even though she lacked the necessary qualifications to be classified as an expert, and thus deny new trials in every case in which she testified, or (2) determine that her testimony was inadmissible and require new trials in every case. Since the majority has chosen to dispose of these cases on an ad hoc basis, it would have been more judicious to have just denied the allocatur.
Moreover, the brief of appellant who appeared in pro persona, was most inadequate and of practically no assistance to the Court in helping to formulate any meaningful determination of this vexatious problem. For these reasons I must conclude that (1) this was a most improper case for the grant of allocatur, and (2) if the issues raised by appellant were important enough to warrant the grant of allocatur, this Court should have invoked Rule 80 of the Rules of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, which permits our Court, in its discretion, to order oral argument and to appoint counsel in order to have an effectively litigated issue in the tradition of our heralded adversary system.
I dissent.