Court Opinion

ID: 9748376
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-27 16:00:51.554844+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:25:34.963667
License: Public Domain

SAYLOR, Justice,
concurring.
As the majority aptly explains, at issue in this case is the substantial tension between maintaining respect for prior rulings in the interest of sound and efficient judicial administration, and the essential ability to correct mistakes in furtherance of the interests of justice. Unlike my colleagues, however, I do not discern material differences arising from the distinct procedural postures in which Judges Gordon and Field made their rulings to deny and allow Appellees to amend their answer, respectively, since I believe that the relevant circumstances were sufficiently developed at the time Judge Gordon made his initial ruling. I would nonetheless affirm the Superior Court’s order, because I find that Judge Gordon’s order was sufficiently infirm, in and of itself, to warrant correction at any time during the course of the proceedings. My reasoning follows.
In her complaint in the present medical malpractice action, Appellant asserted that some of the defendant-physicians had been negligent in their examination and treatment of her beginning in 1978, thus exacerbating her glandular disorder. Further, Appellant made explicit reference to injuries that she *169sustained in her 1982 work-related accident, contending that such injuries aggravated the symptoms of her pre-existing disease, and, conversely, that the presence of the disease made her injuries worse than they otherwise would have been. Hence, Appellant claimed that the doctors’ alleged negligence was a proximate cause of her total loss of earning power as of the date of the accident.1 In each motion to amend filed before Judge Gordon, his successor, and ultimately Judge Field, Appellees alleged, and Appellant admitted, that Appellant had filed a product liability action against Baker’s Aid, Inc. arising out of the 1982 accident, and that she had settled that suit in exchange for Baker’s Aid’s payment to her of $275,000.
While recognizing that Appellees and Baker’s Aid are alleged to be not joint but successive tortfeasors, nevertheless, Pennsylvania law prescribes that a plaintiff is generally entitled to only a single satisfaction for her loss. See Brown v. Pittsburgh, 409 Pa. 357, 362-63, 186 A.2d 399, 402-03 (1962); Hilbert v. Roth, 395 Pa. 270, 272, 149 A.2d 648, 650 (1959). The release, on its face, discharged all persons from any “consequences flowing” from the work-related accident, which presumably included the loss of earning power that Appellant claimed to have suffered as of that date. Accordingly, to the extent that they might be deemed liable for the economic injuries alleged in the present complaint, the physician-defendants who treated Appellant prior to 1982 would also appear to be entitled to an offset for that portion of the $275,000 recovery attributable to Appellant’s loss of earning capacity.
Additionally, those who treated her after 1982 could also have argued that the release constituted a bar to liability as, under Appellant’s theory of the case, the maladies from which she was suffering at that point resulted, at least to some degree, from the 1982 accident. It was thus apparent from *170the face of the release and the pleadings already of record, at the time of Appellees’ first motion to amend, that the release constituted a possible bar to liability, and hence, that Appellees should have been permitted to amend their answer absent some valid reason for denying the amendment unrelated to the materiality of the release.
It should be acknowledged that there was one such potential reason before Judge Gordon at the time at which he initially denied the amendment-Appellant asserted that, given that Appellees’ effort to amend occurred on the eve of the date set for trial, the amendment would be prejudicial. Appellees, however, claimed to have only recently learned of the settlement, and, unfortunately, Judge Gordon did not provide the rationale supporting his order. Moreover, Judge Gordon postponed the trial to consider the motion, and issued his order denying the motion more than one year later. In my view, it was error for Judge Gordon to issue an unexplained, per curiam order denying Appellees’ petition for leave to amend their answer to assert the release in these circumstances, particularly where the basis for the amendment was always known to Appellant, and disallowance of the amendment opened the possibility for double satisfaction of Appellant’s claim for economic damages.
The majority relies on a change in the procedural posture of the case as negating the application of the coordinate jurisdiction precept. Riccio v. American Republic Ins. Co., 550 Pa. 254, 705 A.2d 422 (Pa.1997), is distinguishable, however, as that case concerns correction of mistakes at the post-trial motions stage of a civil action. See id. at 262, 705 A.2d at 425-26 (reasoning that “because the post-trial motion process is distinct procedurally from that of rendering a verdict following a non-jury trial and because the considerations of the judge are different at each procedural stage (rendering a verdict at the conclusion of trial versus correcting mistakes made during the earlier trial process), we hold that the coordinate jurisdiction rule does not apply to bar a substituted judge hearing post-trial motions from correcting a mistake made by the trial judge during the trial process”). Further, while it cannot be *171disputed that the trial evidence advanced the understanding that Appellant sought overlapping damages in the medical malpractice and product liability actions (and therefore should be limited to a single satisfaction), as noted, this was already a matter of record in the case. While I recognize the concern that the manifest injustice exception to the coordinate jurisdiction rule should be applied cautiously and sparingly, liberal resort to a changed circumstances exception based upon modest developments in the record would implicate precisely the same sorts of concerns in terms of weakening the coordinate jurisdiction precept.
Here, the interests of justice and the coordinate jurisdiction rule would best be served by resting the Court’s present disposition on the injustice connected with the denial of the amendment. Such denial was sufficiently erroneous to permit correction upon renewal of the motion.

. The more common situation presented in the cases involves an injured person who commences actions against both a tortfeasor and a physician who rendered subsequent treatment. See, e.g., Thompson v. Fox, 326 Pa. 209, 210-11, 192 A. 107, 107-08 (1937). Here, by contrast, at least a portion of the medical malpractice is alleged to have occurred first.