Mark W. Tanner of Feldman Shepherd Wohlgelernter Tanner Weinstock Dodig. Courtesy photo

Mark Tanner, Feldman Shepherd Wohlgelernter Tanner Weinstock Dodig

In 2021, trial attorney Tanner secured a ruling by the Pennsylvania Superior Court that sets the stage for a new way of thinking about suicide-liability cases. In Estate of Henry v. Colangelo, No. 1579 M.D.A. 2020 (Pa. Super. Ct. 2021), the Pennsylvania Superior Court affirmed an order overruling preliminary objections by Nicholas Colangelo, an unqualified layperson who undertook to act as a qualified mental health professional, leading to his "patient's" death by suicide. The opinion suggests that theories of either professional negligence or ordinary negligence may apply. The opinion also clarifies that liability may be imposed when a "professional's" actions foreseeably lead to suicide, effectively limiting the impact of the 1989 Superior Court decision in McPeake v. Cannon.

McPeake involved the death by suicide of a criminal defendant who jumped through a courtroom window after he was found guilty of raping a minor. The decedent's estate filed suit against the decedent's criminal defense attorney, alleging that his negligent representation resulted in the verdict and thereby caused the death. The Superior Court upheld dismissal of the complaint on the basis that no duty existed, reasoning that lawyers are not generally trained to foresee, respond to, or guard against the risk of suicide in their clients. For support, Colangelo relied largely on McPeake for the proposition that none of the recognized exceptions to the general rule against wrongful death liability in cases of suicide applied.

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