Mashana Cunningham, v. Tara Lechleitner, Hailey Lechleitner and Kathleen Lechleitner

Mashana Cunningham, v. Tara Lechleitner, Hailey Lechleitner and Kathleen Lechleitner

Civil Action-Property Law-Landlord-Tenant-Amendment of Pleading-Pa.R.C.P. Rule 1033-Discretion of the Court-Error of Law-Resulting Prejudice-Ad Damnum Clause

Mashana Cunningham (“Plaintiff”) filed a Motion to Amend a Civil Complaint she filed in her capacity as a landlord against tenants Tara Lechleitner, Hailey Lechleitner and Kathleen Lechleitner (“Defendants”) adding a request for counsel fees and court costs.

1.  Pa.R.C.P. Rule 1033(a) provides that either by filed consent of the adverse party or by leave of court, a party may at any time change the form of action, add a person as a party, correct the name of a party or otherwise amend a pleading.

2.  The determination of whether to grant leave to amend lies in the source discretion of the trial court.

3.  Amendment should be granted liberally at any stage of the proceedings unless there is an error of law or resulting prejudice to an adverse party.

4.  The amended pleading may aver occurrences that happened before or after the filing of the original pleading, even if they give rise to a new cause of action or defense.

5.  Amendment of an ad damnum clause is permitted at any point in the litigation.

6.  A trial court may deny amendment of a pleading if there is resulting prejudice or surprise to the adverse party. 

7.  Prejudice must be undue prejudice, which is more than a mere detriment to the other party. 

8.  A long unexplained delay between the original pleading and the motion to amend will be considered as a factor in deciding whether to permit amendment.

9.  An amendment that presents a new cause of action where the statute of limitations has expired is not permitted, as such an amendment is prejudicial.

10.  Where only approximately six (6) months passed from the filing of the Complaint and the request to amend the pleading, the Motion to Amend timely has been filed.

11.  Adding a request for counsel fees and court costs does not subject Defendants to prejudice or unfair surprise, as amendment of the ad damnum clause is permitted at any point of the litigation. 

12.  Where the factual allegations essentially are the same and Plaintiff wishes to assert a different legal ground by which to recover, no reasonable justification exists to deny the request to amend the Complaint.

L.C.C.C.P. No. 2022-01227, Opinion by Charles T. Jones, Jr., Judge, October 16, 2023.