The intersection of contract and tort law took center stage Tuesday during the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s oral argument session involving a surviving spouse’s efforts to bring a wrongful death suit after her husband drowned during the 2010 Philadelphia Triathlon.

Attorney Craig Falcone of Sacchetta & Falcone, who represented the widow, told the justices that because the wrongful death statute allows a decedent’s heirs to bring their own “separate and independent” claims, the fact that the triathlete signed a waiver releasing the organization from liability before the event does not extinguish the widow’s claims.