Sunday, November 7, 2010

Superior Court Reaffirms No Stacking of First Party Benefits

In its "non-precedential" Opinion in the case of Rosiecki v. Erie Insurance Exchange, No. 44 MDA 2010 (Pa.Super. 2010, Allen, Mundy, and Colville, JJ.), the Pennsylvania Superior Court essentially reaffirmed the notion that first party benefits can not be stacked in Pennsylvania. See 75 Pa.C.S. Section 1717.

This case of apparent first impression involved a Plaintiff who had been involved in six motor vehicle accidents over the course of her lifetime. She attempted to argue with respect to this matter, arising from her most recent accident, that her injuries from all of the accidents were cumulative and that this matter involved an exacerbation of all of her related injuries such that she should be entitled to recover under her first party wage loss benefits six times over.


On the basis of the evidence presented, the Court rejected this argument by the Plaintiff and accepted Erie's argument that the Plaintiff was only entitled to recover wage loss benefits under the first party wage loss limits implicated by the last accident alone. As such, the Superior Court affirmed the entry of summary judgment in favor of Erie originally haCheck Spellingnded down in the Lackawanna County Court of Common Pleas.

I thank the prevailing defense attorney, Robert T. Panowicz of Panowicz Law Offices in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, for bringing this decision to my attention.



Anyone desiring a copy of this unpublished, non-precedential decision by the Superior Court in Rosiecki may contact me at dancummins@comcast.net.

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