PHILADELPHIA - Mental health professionals have a duty to warn of threats made by patients even if they are made against an unspecified person, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court said in a split opinion Tuesday.The 3-2 majority opinion upheld a 2018 Superior Court decision that the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Presbyterian Shadyside known as the Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic and other defendants had a duty to warn the neighbors of a patient who told his doctors he wanted to kill his neighbors, even though he didn't give his doctors a specific name.
Two justices did not participate in the deliberations.In 2008, patient Terrence Andrews stabbed and killed his 18-year-old neighbor, Lisa Maas, with a pair of scissors..