Thierfelder v. Wolfert

OPINION

Chief Justice CASTILLE.

The question presented in this case is one of first impression for this Court: whether a medical general practitioner who provides incidental mental health treatment to a patient, with whom he then engages in a sexual affair, may be held to a particularized “specialist duty,” applicable to mental health professionals, that prohibits consensual sexual contact with patients, such that the defendant general practitioner may be subject to medical malpractice liability in tort. For the following reasons, we decline to impose such a duty as a matter of Pennsylvania…