Reversing a trial court decision that lawyers say threatened to upset the practice of partial settlement, the Superior Court has re-established the plaintiff’s right to enter into a joint tortfeasor release and settle with some defendants but not others when they are bound by a common principal.
The three-judge panel in Maloney v. Valley Medical, PICS Case No. 08-0391 (Pa. Super. March 7, 2008) Kelly, J. (11 pages) found that the joint tortfeasor release at issue should be construed according to contract law to give effect to the language “bearing in mind the objects manifestly to be accomplished.”
