The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has agreed to consider whether failing to fully cover a concrete wall in a school's gymnasium with protective matting fits the narrow exception for governmental immunity.

The justices on July 11 granted allocatur in Brewington v. City of Philadelphia to address whether the Commonwealth Court “impermissibly” broadened that exception when it allowed a student to sue his former school after he struck his head on a concrete wall while running a relay race in his school's gym.

Last year, an en banc panel of the Commonwealth Court ruled that Jarrett Brewington, a former student at the now-closed Walter G. Smith Elementary School, could sue the school for the concussion he sustained after he tripped and hit his head on an uncovered portion of the wall during the race. The court had determined that the facts fell under the real property exception to the general rule for governmental immunity under Pennsylvania's Tort Claims Act.