The state Superior Court has granted a request by Dr. Frances Batzer Baylson and her husband, U.S. District Judge Michael M. Baylson, to transfer back to Philadelphia their Dragonetti suit over litigation involving Batzer Baylson's business contracts to store frozen sperm.

The issue on appeal was whether wrongful use of civil proceedings cases, or Dragonetti actions, can only be filed in the venue in which the underlying litigation occurred. The Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas trial judge answered that question in the affirmative and transferred the Baylsons' case to Montgomery County, where Batzer Baylson, a fertility specialist, had been unsuccessfully sued for allegedly violating contracts with Fairfax Cryobank over the storage of reproductive material.

In a two-judge Superior Court opinion in Baylson v. Genetics & IVF Institute, Judge Anne Lazarus said while Montgomery County was an appropriate forum, defendant Fairfax Cryobank had enough business contacts in Philadelphia to make that county an appropriate forum for the case as well. And by extension, co-defendant law firm Morris Wilson of Plymouth Meeting, Pa., can be sued in Philadelphia too, Lazarus ruled.