Schmidt v. Rosin, 354 EAL 2020
Decision Date | 07 April 2021 |
Docket Number | No. 354 EAL 2020,354 EAL 2020 |
Citation | 248 A.3d 415 (Mem) |
Parties | Harry SCHMIDT and Gary Schmidt, Respondents v. Robert ROSIN, Individually and as Robert Rosin, Esq., Petitioner |
Court | Pennsylvania Supreme Court |
AND NOW , this 7th day of April, 2021, the Petition for Allowance of Appeal is GRANTED, on a limited basis, the Superior Court's order is VACATED to the extent that it revived the dismissed claim of legal malpractice asserted on behalf of Gary Schmidt, and the matter is REMANDED for consideration of whether Respondents raised and preserved a contract-based theory consistent with the requirements stated in Steiner v. Markel , 600 Pa. 515, 968 A.2d 1253 (2009). The petition for allowance of appeal is DENIED in all other respects, albeit without prejudice to Petitioner's ability to raise his arguments under Guy v. Liederbach , 501 Pa. 47, 459 A.2d 744 (1983), and Estate of Agnew v. Ross , 638 Pa. 20, 152 A.3d 247 (2017), in a subsequent petition for allowance of appeal, should the issue-preservation issue be decided adversely to him.
To guide the ensuing review, the Court notes the following. Citing Steiner , Petitioner asserts that the Superior Court inappropriately proceeded sua sponte to raise a contract-based theory to support the viability of a cause of action by Gary Schmidt for legal malpractice.
The central holding of Steiner was that plaintiffs would not be permitted to pursue a contract-based theory on appeal in a legal malpractice action, where the intention to purse relief based on contract principles was not properly developed and preserved. See Steiner , 968 A.2d at 1260. And significantly, a sufficient treatment of an issue in an appellant's brief is an essential component of issue preservation. See, e.g. , Commonwealth v. Johnson, 604 Pa. 176, 985 A.2d 915, 924 (2009) ( ).
Here, in Respondents’ brief to the Superior Court as the appellants, they relied upon Kituskie v. Corbman , 552 Pa. 275, 714 A.2d 1027 (1998), in setting forth the elements of the cause of action pursued in the operative pleading (a second amended complaint). See Brief for Appellants dated Oct. 26, 2019, in Schmidt v. Rosen , No. 1310 EDA 2019, at 9. Under Steiner, the elements set forth in Kituskie are deemed to frame an action grounded in tort and...
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Schmidt v. Rosin
...2017), in a subsequent petition for allowance of appeal, should the issue preservation issue be decided adversely to him. Schmidt v. Rosin , 248 A.3d 415 (Pa. 2021). The Supreme Court's order limits our review to a single issue: whether, under Steiner , Gary raised and preserved an action f......
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Kohut v. Vlahos
...Schmidt decision upon which Heirs rely was subsequently vacated by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in a per curiam order. See Schmidt v. Rosin, 248 A.3d 415, 354 2020 (Pa. 2021). The Supreme Court remanded the case back to this Court for consideration of whether one of the plaintiffs - who a......