The decision stems from a lawsuit filed by Linda Reibenstein on behalf of her mother, Mary Ann Whitman, who died in late April 2010 fromOn April 12, 2010, Whitman visited Patrick D. Conaboy, MD, a Scranton family physician, complaining of a persistent cough, fever, and lower-back pain. Following an initial examination, Conaboy ordered an aortic duplex ultrasound scan and a CT scan of the patient's abdomen.
In April 2011, Reibenstein filed a claim against Barax, alleging that he had failed to gauge the severity of her mother's condition. Reibenstein's attorney wasn't able to question Barax on the record until well after the state's 2-year statute of limitations had elapsed. When he did testify, Barax explained that the scans' image quality prevented him from determining whether Whitman's aneurysm was rupturing or simply bleeding.
Initially refusing to dismiss the case, a lower court reconsidered Conaboy's motion for summary judgment and ruled that Reibenstein had failed to present any evidence of"affirmative misrepresentation or fraudulent concealment.
Conaboy then took his case to the state's highest court. In its majority decision, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court staked out a narrow definition of cause of death — one based on the death certificate — and ruled that only willful fraud in that document would constitute the necessary condition for halting the claim's clock.