Armbruster v. Horowitz

1 Appellant Armbruster and his wife filed a negligence suit against Appellee Horowitz and his dental practice in connection with the placement, failure, removal, and replacement of dental implants. After a jury trial, the Honorable James M. Munley presiding, a verdict was returned in favor of Appellee. The jury specifically found that while Appellee was negligent, his negligence was not a substantial factor in bringing about the claimed harm to Appellant. Appellant filed a post-trial motion, claiming that the verdict was against the weight of the evidence. Appellee subsequently filed a praecipe to enter judgment on the jury verdict because more than 120 days had passed from the filing of the post-trial motion, without disposition by the trial court. See Pa.R.C.P. 227.4 (1) (b) (""the prothonotary shall, upon praecipe of a party: enter judgment upon the verdict of a jury . . ., if one or more timely post trial motions are filed and the court does not enter an order disposing of all motions within one hundred twenty days after the filing of the first motion."") Judgment on the verdict was entered by the prothonotary this same day. 2 At the time Appellee praeciped to have judgment entered, Judge Munley had been appointed to the United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania.1 Due to this fact, the trial court failed to file, in accordance with Pa.R.A.P. 1925(a), an opinion in support of the jury verdict.