HARRISBURG – The Superior Court of Pennsylvania has elected to vacate a Philadelphia trial court’s October order granting reconsideration and remand to the dismissal of a man’s Federal Employers Liability Act case against Conrail, Norfolk Southern Railway Company and an insurance carrier.
On Aug. 22, Superior Court justices Megan McCarthy King, Megan Sullivan and Dan Pellegrini issued the vacation of the trial court order in plaintiff David Reynolds’s action versus Consolidated Rail Corporation, Norfolk Southern Railway Company and Penn Central Corporation (doing business as “American Premier Underwriters, Inc.”) Pellegrini authored the Court’s opinion in this case.
“In July 2021, plaintiff filed this action against defendants in the [Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas]. Plaintiff sought damages under the Federal Employers Liability Act (FELA), alleging that he was exposed to excessive amounts of asbestos while working for the defendants in Ohio from 1967 to 2004. After filing its answer and new matter, Conrail moved to dismiss the plaintiff’s action based on grounds of forum non conveniens. On Sept. 23, 2022, the trial court dismissed plaintiff’s action ‘without prejudice to refile this action in Ohio or any other appropriate jurisdiction,” Pellegrini said.
“On Sept. 29, 2022, plaintiff filed a timely motion for reconsideration requesting that the trial court amend the language of its order to reflect plaintiff’s original filing date so that the statute of limitations was tolled as of that filing date. Conrail answered and opposed the motion, noting that plaintiff filed an action in Ohio in February 2022, but later voluntarily dismissed its action. Nevertheless, on Oct. 28, 2022, more than 30 days after entry of its prior order, the trial court granted plaintiff’s motion for reconsideration, vacated its prior order and entered a new order adding plaintiff’s requested language that ‘if this action is refiled within 120 days of this order, the filing date to be used for statute of limitation purposes in the refiled action shall be July 30, 2021.”
The defendants appealed and Conrail asserted that “the trial court erred in granting reconsideration more than 30 days after entry of its prior order dismissing the action.”
Pellegrini and his colleagues concurred with that rationale.
“Plaintiff filed a FELA [action] against his former employers, defendants, in Philadelphia County, even though he lived and worked in Ohio. When defendants moved to dismiss based on forum non conveniens, the trial court granted the motion with prejudice, [for] plaintiff to file his action in Ohio or another appropriate jurisdiction. Because the trial court’s order was entered on Sept. 23, 2022, any order granting reconsideration needed to be entered on or before Oct. 24, 2022. Here, however, the trial court did not grant reconsideration until Oct. 28, 2022,” Pellegrini said.
“As a result…we conclude that the trial court was without power to reconsider its Sept. 23, 2022 order granting defendants’ motion to dismiss. Accordingly, we vacate the trial court’s Oct. 28, 2022 order granting reconsideration and remand for the trial court to reinstate its prior Sept. 23, 2022 order granting defendants’ motion to dismiss without prejudice based on forum non conveniens. Order vacated. Case remanded with instructions. Jurisdiction relinquished.”
Superior Court of Philadelphia cases 2807 EDA 2022 & 2811 EDA 2022
Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas case 210702545
From the Pennsylvania Record: Reach Courts Reporter Nicholas Malfitano at nick.malfitano@therecordinc.com