The state Supreme Court has agreed to hear arguments over whether the state Superior Court properly tossed a $2.5 million verdict awarded to a man who fell 40 feet from an electrical transmission pole after his lanyard detached from a ladder.

The Supreme Court granted allocatur in Nertavich v. PPL Electric Utilities on May 14. The justices agreed to hear arguments on whether the Superior Court's decision conflicted with the Supreme Court's 2011 ruling in Beil v. Telesis Construction, and whether the intermediate court added an element of proof for imposing liability on a property owner under Section 414 of the Restatement (Second) of Torts.

In August, a three-judge Superior Court panel vacated a Philadelphia jury's award to plaintiff Vincent Nertavich Jr. and ordered that judgment notwithstanding the verdict be entered in favor of PPL Electric Utilities.