The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has reached an impasse on the issue of whether a waiver prevents the widow of a man who died competing in a triathlon from suing, effectively upholding a lower court’s ruling that she was barred from filing a lawsuit.

The state’s justices could not reach a consensus in Valentino v. Philadelphia Triathlon, specifically on the question of whether “a waiver of liability form, executed solely by the decedent, and stating the signer assumes all risks of participation in a triathlon, also binds his heirs, thereby precluding them from bringing a wrongful death action.”