Khalil v. Williams, 244 A.3d 830 (Pa. Super. 2021), was a legal malpractice action that arose out of the defendant lawyers’ representation of our client in an action against her property and casualty insurer for failing to pay claims.

The Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas granted summary judgment for the lawyer and law firm defendants, holding that our client’s claims for breach of contract, legal malpractice, and negligent misrepresentation were barred by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s holding in Muhammad v. Strassburger, 526 Pa. 541, 587 A.2d 1346 (1991).

Virginia McMichael briefed and argued the appeal to the Superior Court of Pennsylvania. She succeeded in persuading the Superior Court that the trial court erred as a matter of law when it dismissed the plaintiff’s fraud claim on the grounds of collateral estoppel and res judicata. The Superior court, however, affirmed the trial court’s holding that the remaining counts were barred by the Muhammad rule. The Superior Court’s decision was the subject of an article in The Legal Intelligencer.

On August 3, 2021, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania granted the Petition for Allowance of Appeal we filed from the Superior Court’s decision.  

The Supreme Court granted allocator to consider whether it should overturn Muhammad. The Court will also consider whether the Superior Court erred as a matter of law when it held that Petitioner’s claims were barred by Muhammad. 

The appeal has been docketed under the caption Khalil v. Williams, 24 EAP 2021. Virginia McMichael will represent the Appellant, Ahlam Khalil, in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.