Lutge v. Rosin

32 Pa. D. & C. 338, 1938 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 384
CourtPennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Philadelphia County
DecidedMarch 14, 1938
Docketno. 2408
StatusPublished

This text of 32 Pa. D. & C. 338 (Lutge v. Rosin) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Philadelphia County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lutge v. Rosin, 32 Pa. D. & C. 338, 1938 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 384 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1938).

Opinion

Oliver, P. J.,

On April 15,1937, the decedent, while a passenger in an automobile owned and operated by John T. Fegley, was injured when Fegley’s car collided with an automobile driven by defendant. On October 15,1937, an action in trespass was instituted by decedent against defendant. Following her death, on November 14, 1937, her administratrix c. t. a. was substituted as plaintiff. On January 19, 1938, defendant caused to be issued a writ of scire facias to join John T. Fegley as additional defendant on the ground that he is “alone liable to plaintiff for the cause of action declared on in said suit”. The additional defendant filed a petition to quash the writ of scire facias.

We are asked to quash the writ upon four grounds, which may be summarized as follows: Since the writ alleges that the additional defendant is alone liable, the effect of the writ is the same as though the present plaintiff were instituting suit against the additional defendant at this time. The action, being one for personal injuries, could not have been instituted by the present plaintiff, administratrix c. t. a. of the original plaintiff, since actions for personal injuries do not survive to the executor or administrator of the injured party in this State. Therefore, the same result cannot be attained by the circuitous method of a writ of scire facias.

[340]*340In answer to the contention that this scire facias is equivalent to the institution of suit by the administratrix, the original defendant quotes at length from the Scire Facias Act of April 10, 1929, P. L. 479, as amended by the Act of June 25,1937, P. L. 2118. The quoted passages do show that the scire facias is to be considered as a continuation of the original action and not as a new suit. However, this does not negative the contention that it may operate in the same way and have the same effect as though plaintiff had instituted a new suit. Thus:

“. . . plaintiff may have verdict and judgment or other relief against such additional defendant to the same extent as if such defendant had been duly summoned by the plaintiff”. Again, the act says, “with the same force and effect as if such other had been originally sued”. It should be noted that the phrase, “originally sued”, does not necessarily mean, “originally sued at the time when the present action was commenced”, but that it may merely mean, “sued directly by the plaintiff at the time when the sci. fa. issued.” Under the wording of the act, therefore, it is not necessarily true that, where a plaintiff is by law barred from suing another person, that other person may be placed in the position of defending a suit by such plaintiff by means of a scire facias alleging sole liability. On the contrary, the opposite view has on several occasions been sustained by our Supreme Court.

Thus, where defendant avers sole liability of the additional defendant and the plaintiff is barred by the statute of limitations from suing the additional defendant, the scire facias may not issue: Shaw et al. v. Megargee et al., 307 Pa. 447 (1932); Bowers v. Gladstein et al., 317 Pa. 520 (1935); Murray v. Pittsburgh Athletic Co. et al., 324 Pa. 486 (1936). Similarly, if plaintiff is barred from suing his employer in negligence as a result of the provisions of The Workmen’s Compensation Act of June 2, 1915, P. L. 736, scire facias may not issue to the employer on an allegation that he is alone liable: Jackson v. Gleason [341]*341et al., 320 Pa. 545 (1936). It follows that, if the present plaintiff is barred from bringing this action against additional defendant, this writ must be quashed.

Whether the present plaintiff is thus barred depends upon whether the recent amendment to the Fiduciaries Act of June 7, 1917, P. L. 447, approved July 2, 1937, P. L. 2755, applies to this case. Prior to that amendment, the common-law rule that actions for personal injuries do not survive to the executor or administrator of the deceased was in force in this State. A provision for such survival in the Act of 1917, supra, sec. 35(5), had been held unconstitutional on the sole ground that it was not clearly referred to in the title of that act, as required by article III, sec. 3, of the State Constitution: Strain, Admr., v. Kern, 277 Pa. 209 (1923). But the 1937 amendment changes the title of the earlier act to include, “the survival of causes of action and suits thereupon by or against fiduciaries”, and reenacts section 35(5) as follows:

“Executors or administrators shall have power, either alone or jointly with other plaintiffs, to commence and prosecute all actions for mesne profits or for trespass to real property, and all personal actions which the decedent whom they represent might have commenced . . . except actions for slander and for libels”.

This amendment was in force at the time of the institution of this suit, at the time of the deceased’s death, and at the time of the appointment of the present administratrix c. t. a.

That the cause of action arose prior to the passage of the amendment in no way affects its application in determining the legal consequences of the death of the deceased. These consequences took place after the passage of the amendment and when it was in full force. It, therefore, cannot properly be said that to so apply the amendment is to give it retroactive effect. The amendment created no new liability on the part of the additional de[342]*342fendant. It merely prevented the future extinguishment of a liability which was already in existence. Unless we are to say that the mere possibility that the deceased might die, and thus extinguish his cause of action, amounted to a vested right in the additional defendant, there can be no valid objection to the present application of the 1937 amendment. When a similar situation arose under the New York survival statute, it was decided that the law in force at the time of the decedent’s death should apply, and not that which was in effect when the cause of action arose:

“When the defendant died, in 1910, it for the first time became necessary to determine whether the cause of action survived, and this question is very properly determined by reference to the statute in force at that date”: Gorlitzer v. Wolffberg, 208 N. Y. 475 (1913).

Having determined that, at the time of the issuance of this scire facias plaintiff could have directly sued the additional defendant for personal injuries to the deceased, it follows that the scire facias was properly issued and that the present motion must be denied.

The motion of the additional defendant to quash the writ of scire facias is therefore overruled.

Supplemental opinion

Oliver, P. J., April 14, 1938. — There are two types of statutes generally used to remedy the old common-law rule that an action for personal injuries, or a cause of action for personal injuries, dies with the death of the person injured. The first is the Death Act of April 15, 1851, P. L. 669, modeled after Lord Campbell’s Act in England, August 26,1846,18 Eng. Stat. at L. 291, which creates in certain named relatives of the deceased a cause of action for the damages which they sustain by reason of his death. Naturally, the damages recoverable in this action are for such items as loss of services, funeral ex[343]*343penses, etc., and there can he no recovery for the pain and suffering of the deceased.

The second type of statute is known as a survival statute.

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Bluebook (online)
32 Pa. D. & C. 338, 1938 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 384, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lutge-v-rosin-pactcomplphilad-1938.