The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has agreed to hear arguments over whether mental health professionals have a duty to warn of threats against a group of unspecified individuals.

In Maas v. UPMC Presbyterian Shadyside, a three-judge panel of the state Superior Court ruled last June that defendants UPMC Presbyterian Shadyside d/b/a Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, Dr. Michelle Barwell and Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic Adult Community Treatment Team had a duty to warn the neighbors of a mentally ill patient that he had threatened to kill one of them, even though he hadn’t specified which one.