Pennsylvania Supreme Court Dismisses Appeal in Bugosh, Postpones Addressing Whether to Adopt Restatement (Third) of Torts Standard

Those who had awaited the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s ruling in Bugosh v. I.U. North America Inc., No. 7 WAP 2008, to answer whether the court would adopt Section 2 of the Restatement (Third) of Torts in place of Section 402A of the Restatement (Second) of Torts, will have to wait a while longer.

On June 16, the court dismissed the Bugosh appeal as improvidently granted, thus declining to rule on the issue. As recently as April 2009, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit had predicted in Berrier v. Simplicity Manufacturing, Inc., 563 F.3d 38 (3d Cir. 2009), that the state Supreme Court would adopt Sections 1 and 2 of the Restatement (Third) of Torts, resulting in the application of negligence concepts to strict liability doctrine. The order of dismissal does not provide a reason for the action.

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