Amicus Win - LFV v Philadelphia School District
Trial Attorney & Appeallate Attorneys - Chip Becker, Nadeem Bezar, Andra Laidacker, and Helen Lawless of Kline & Specter
PAJ Amicus Author - Dan Siegel, of the Law Offices of Daniel J. Siegel
Amicus Brief Authors - Neil O’Donnell and Gerard Gaughan of the O’Donnell Law Offices
Opinion

The Commonwealth Court,  en banc,  rejected the School District’s narrow interpretation of a 2019 amendment to the PA governmental immunity act. The 2019 amendment waived state and local immunity, permitting victims of sexual abuse to sue state and local entities for negligence where their conduct enabled the sexual abuse. The School District argued that it was immune unless an employee committed the criminal sexual abuse which is the predicate act for waiver of immunity.  The Commonwealth Court held that “A local agency thus does not have immunity if the specific, alleged facts ‘squarely’ fall within one of the enumerated exceptions and advance a claim of joint—not vicarious or secondary—liability.” Where a student abuses another student under the negligent supervision of the school, the “sex abuse” exception to governmental immunity applies