An appeals court has ruled that the city of Philadelphia is liable for a $260,000 verdict stemming from a case in which a police officer driving to a hearing hit a pedestrian crossing the street.

The Commonwealth Court tackled the question of whether the officer, Yvette Leduc, was technically on duty as she drove her civilian car to court to testify in a criminal case when the accident occurred. The appeals court found that because the city failed to respond to the plaintiff’s request for admissions until three months after the discovery deadline and about one month before trial, all of the items in the request—including that Leduc had been on-duty at the time of the accident—were properly deemed admitted and the city was bound by those admissions.