A law granting immunity to health care providers who treat mental illness should not have been applied to two emergency room doctors who treated a man while he was suffering from an opioid addiction, the Pennsylvania Superior Court has ruled.

A three-judge Superior Court panel determined that two doctors who treated a man transferred from a drug treatment facility should not have been afforded liability protections under the Mental Health Procedures Act. The ruling reversed a decision by the Chester County Court of Common Pleas, but affirmed the lower court’s additional holding that the drug treatment facility should be granted immunity under the MHPA.