Allowing a medical practice to be sued for the mass shooting perpetrated by a client who’d been considered a candidate for involuntary commitment would create an “absurd, even dangerous” precedent for health care providers in Pennsylvania, an attorney argued to the state Supreme Court.

The justices on Tuesday heard oral arguments in a case, captioned Leight v. University of Pittsburgh Physicians, to address whether doctors can be held liable under the Mental Health Procedures Act if they begin but fail to complete the process of involuntary commitment when they recognize their patient is “severely mentally ill and a clear and present danger to others.”