Motion To Amend Complaint to Correct Allegation on Where Incident Occurred Denied Where Statute of Limitations Has Expired

In the Lehigh County case of Hamsher v. Shook, 58 Leh. L.J. 139 (C.P. Leh. Co. Aug. 2, 2018 Johnson, J.), the court ruled, in a slip and fall case, that a Motion to Amend a Complaint To Reflect Correct Address of Subject Accident after the statute of limitations had expired in order to allege a different place of the incident was denied as such an amendment was deemed not to cure a merely technical defect, but was actually found to constitute a different occurrence.

More specifically, the court found that an amendment that would change the location of the incident from one where the Defendant owed no duty to a location where the Defendant did owe a duty, changes the occurrence pled, which is not a permissible amendment once the statute of limitations has expired.

In conjunction with denying the Plaintiff’s Motion to Amend, the court also granted the Defendant’s Motion for Summary Judgment.