What’s an appellate court to do when it’s reviewing a bench verdict and the trial judge is no longer available to explain the reasoning behind it?

That’s the question the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has agreed to consider in Dolan v. Hurd Millwork, in which the Superior Court found it was forced to vacate a nearly $750,000 judgment and order a new trial because the trial judge who rendered the verdict failed to adequately explain his reasoning and had retired from the bench.