Late last year, in Tincher v. Omega Flex, No. 17 MAP 2013, a case currently pending in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, an experienced amicus curiae party, the Pennsylvania Association for Justice, filed one of the most extraordinary applications for relief I have ever seen.
Moving after the oral argument in Tincher had already taken place, the PAJ sought to have the case reargued—and to conduct the reargument on behalf of the plaintiff-appellee—despite having no standing other than as an amicus curiae. This remarkable motion featured a frontal attack on the litigation position taken by the party that the PAJ ostensibly supported—complete with allegations of double-crossing and conflict of interest. However, even the PAJ had to admit there was no precedent for an amicus party to proceed in this fashion, writing that “counsel recognizes that there exists no precedent for reargument by amicus curiae after the original oral argument.” Even though Tincher’s counsel declined to respond, the PAJ’s motion was swiftly denied by the court.
