The Commonwealth Court has ruled that a Huntingdon County attorney representing a deceased inmate cannot become a substitute plaintiff in the inmate’s lawsuit against the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections.

The unusual ruling was handed down Friday in an opinion by Commonwealth Court Judge Patricia A. McCullough. She rebuffed attempts by attorney Marianne Sawicki to intervene in a lawsuit she originally filed on behalf of Thomas Wisniewski, who was serving a life sentence in the State Correctional Institution at Smithfield in Huntingdon County.

Wisniewski, in his early 60s, died in December 2021.

The inmate had chronic pain from a back injury he suffered while working as a bricklayer.

In addressing his back problems, court documents reveal he developed an addiction to crack cocaine. He was eventually sentenced to life for the murder of a child while under the influence of drugs.

His back problems continued while in prison, and Sawiciki filed a lawsuit against the Department of Corrections complaining about the “nonexistent medical care” in the state prison system.

His lawsuit charged a violation of the Pennsylvania Constitution, a violation of the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and breach of contract.

According to the McCullough opinion, Huntingdon County Senior Judge Stewart L. Kurtz dismissed many of the claims in the lawsuit but “not all.”

The inmate’s ensuing appeal was first filed in the Superior Court, but in 2020, it was transferred to the Commonwealth Court.

In early January 2021, Commonwealth Court sent the case back to the Huntingdon County judge asking him to entertain an application to amend the lawsuit to assert a survival claim by Wisniewski’s estate.

The problem, as outlined by the Commonwealth Court judge, was that Wisniewski’s heirs declined to open an estate.

That’s when another inmate at SCI Smithfield stepped forward to serve as the administrator of the estate, but the Huntingdon County Register of Wills refused to open the estate because she had not witnessed the inmate signing the legal papers.

An attempt was made to set up a video call to witness the signing, but the county’s court administrator was unable to set up the call.

Sawiciki then filed two applications asking the trial judge to allow the inmate to become the administrator of the estate so the lawsuit could continue and for a court order seeking to have the inmate brought to the courthouse to sign the proper papers.

On July 14, 2021, Kurtz denied the applications and dismissed the lawsuit due to the lack of an estate administrator.

Sawicki then asked that she be allowed to assert claims on Wisniewski’s behalf.

She contended that the estate owed her money and that she was thus an “aggrieved party.”

That was refused and she filed an appeal with the Commonwealth Court.

The McCullough opinion upheld the ruling of the Huntingdon judge, noting it was “entirely within bounds of this Court’s remand order.”

The opinion concluded, “The fact that Ms. Sawicki was Wisniewski’s attorney does not make her a party to the action.

Sawicki, it ruled, did not have standing to even file the appeal from the Kurtz dismissal of her applications.