High Court Oral Arguments to Start Today in Phila.
The Legal Intelligencer
October 18, 2004

By: CHRISTOPHER LILIENTHAL

Starting today, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court is in Philadelphia for three days of oral arguments, helming a docket of nearly three times as many appeals as it heard last month in Pittsburgh.

Of the 36 cases scheduled for argument over the next three days, several are worth watching. Arguments begin each day at 9:30 a.m. in Courtroom 456 on the fourth floor of City Hall.

Times are not available for individual arguments. The justices hear them in order according to their "daily list number."

MONDAY

• Pratt v. St. Christopher's Hospital, Daily List No. 6.
  Issue: Whether a new trial is warranted in a Philadelphia medical malpractice case in which two jury members sought outside opinions on the expert testimony offered at trial.
  
  A split Superior Court panel last year found that a new trial was required. "In this case," President Judge Joseph A. Del Sole wrote, "two jurors in essence sought out their own expert testimony, which necessarily sever to support one of the two sides at trial. If these allegations of misconduct are true, this action was prejudicial - and warrants a new trial."
  
  Philadelphia Common Pleas Judge Victor J. DiNubile Jr. had found that a new trial was not warranted because jurors are not permitted to testify about how they reach their decisions and because the information obtained from outside sources was amply addressed during the trail by both sides.
  
  Plaintiff's attorney: Gayle Lewis, the Lewis Law Firm, Bryn Mawr. Defense attorney: Charles A. Fitzpatrick, Mylotte David & Fitzpatrick, Philadelphia.