PA Supreme Court to hear Tom Kline appeal of municipal liability cap

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has granted a petition today to consider an appeal challenging the constitutionality of the state law which limits legal recoveries against government entities to $500,000. The appeal arose from the highly publicized case of Ashley Zauflik, a student who lost her left leg after she was run over by a bus at Pennsbury High School in 2007. A Bucks County jury awarded $14 million in the case in 2011, but her recovery was reduced to $500,000 because of the state cap. Commonwealth Court upheld the law in a ruling last July but the case was appealed to the state’s highest court by Kline & Specter attorney Tom Kline. He noted that this was the first time in nearly three decades that the court has agreed to hear an appeal of the cap law. Said Kline: “I am hopeful that many years of injustice will come to an end, and that the justices will ultimately find that the statute creating inequity among our citizens and will be rectified.” (Read more)