In Dockery v. Thomas Jefferson Univ. Hospitals, Inc., Ms. Dockery filed a medical-malpractice action in Philadelphia, although she alleged the underlying tortious conduct occurred in Delaware Co. The trial court sustained the defendants’ preliminary objections and transferred the case to Delaware Co. This permissible, interlocutory appeal of the order transferring venue followed. The appeal revolved around statutes and rules that require medical-malpractice actions to be brought in the county where the cause of action arose. That rule is codified in Pa.R.C.P. 1006(a)(1) and 42 Pa.C.S. ยง 5101.1. Ms. Dockery claimed that those laws violated her right to equal protection of the law, protected by the state and federal constitutions. The Pennsylvania Superior Court held that Ms. Dockery did not make a sufficient constitutional argument that the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania lacked a rational basis for promulgating Rule 1006.
