Court Opinion

ID: 9635281
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 13:45:05.965587+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:09:22.870382
License: Public Domain

HUTCHINSON, Justice,
dissenting.
I dissent. Common Pleas’ order barring appellants’ new matter is in practical effect a final order and, therefore, appellate review is proper. I recognize that no appeal will lie to this Court from an interlocutory order unless otherwise expressly permitted by statute. Stevenson v. General Motors, 513 Pa. 411, 521 A.2d 413 (1987). However, in determining whether an order is final, we should look beyond the technical effect of the adjudication to its practical ramifications. T.C.R. Realty, Inc. v. Cox, 472 Pa. 331, 337, 372 A.2d 721, 724 (1977). Although the appellants are not technically “out of court” since they still must appear at trial before the court below, the practical effect of the discovery sanction is to deprive them of an opportunity to present their defenses to appellee’s libel action against them. Appellants’ new matter raised seven affirmative defenses to appellee’s libel claim. Striking their new matter deprives them of the opportunity to assert or prove matters essential to an effective defense of a libel action, including the constitutionally protected defenses of truth and privilege under the Pennsylvania Constitution. The sanction order precludes appellants from contesting the merits of appellee’s claim.
Moreover, in Grota v. LaBocetta, 425 Pa. 620, 230 A.2d 206 (1967), we held that a trial court’s refusal to allow an amendment of defendants’ answer to include an affirmative defense was a final order and thus appealable. We reasoned that precluding the opportunity to amend to incorporate an affirmative defense put them out of court. The extreme sanction order entered here also deprives appel*54lants of the opportunity to assert affirmative defenses essential to vindication of free speech and public comment on official performance guaranteed by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution and Article 1, section 7 of the Pennsylvania Constitution. The order here is simply not analogous to the myriad interlocutory orders involving discovery. It denies appellants fundamental rights secured by the constitutions which govern us. While I agree that most discovery sanctions are not final and appealable, the sanction in this case effectively put the appellants out of court on a number of key defenses. Unless we overrule LaBocetta and its progeny, this discovery sanction is a fortiori a final order and appealable.