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House Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
House of Representatives
Session of 2023 - 2024
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | July 25, 2023 09:26 AM |
|---|---|
| From: | Representative Emily Kinkead |
| To: | All House members |
| Subject: | Reforming the Cap on Statutory Damages |
| In 2017, a Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) bus hit Hayley Freilich while she was crossing at the intersection of Broad Street and Vine Street in Philadelphia, causing Ms. Freilich permanent bodily injuries that necessitated extensive medical treatment. SEPTA admitted negligence and the parties agreed to award Ms. Freilich $7,000,000. However, SEPTA then filed a post-trial motion citing Pennsylvania’s Sovereign Immunities Act, which sets limits on damages that a person is able to recover when suing a Commonwealth party or a local party and reduced the award to only $250,000 – 28 times less than was agreed upon. This is a horribly egregious case, but far from the only instance of this law standing in the way of adequate justice. This law has received multiple constitutional challenges over the years, with former Supreme Court Chief Justice Max Baer writing in a 2014 opinion that he could “envision a scenario where a personal injury victim is able to prove that the $500,000 statutory cap on damages, which has not been increased since its enactment in 1978, violates the right to a jury trial as guaranteed by Article I, Section 6 of the Pennsylvania Constitution.” To address this constitutional shortcoming, and to better protect the people that we serve, I will be introducing legislation that would increase the caps on statutory damages for causes of action against both a Commonwealth party and a local party. The bill would also include an exception to the damage cap if the defendant admits liability and agrees to pay more than the damages cap in order to prevent what happened to Ms. Freilich from happening to anyone else. Finally, the legislation would ensure that Commonwealth and local parties can be held liable for any incident that causes permanent disfigurement or dismemberment that comes with an overwhelming financial burden. Many of our political subdivisions are able to purchase affordable insurance to protect them whenever an incident occurs, so this will not place any new, undue burdens on our state or local agencies. Further, this legislation is necessary to address both how overwhelmingly expensive it is to bring a case against the state or a local agency and how much more expensive medical care has become since these limits were set in 1978. Please join me in supporting this legislation, finally taking the advice that the Supreme Court has been offering for almost a decade, and ensuring that residents of our state receive fair compensation for their injuries when they are victims of governmental negligence. |