ORDER

AND NOW, this 19th day of May, 2009, the Petition for Allowance of Appeal is GRANTED, LIMITED to the following issue:

Whether under Pa.R.C.P. 213(a) a trial court order, which states that two separately docketed eases involving different plaintiffs and different theories of liability are “consolidated for all purposes,” and does not otherwise specify that a joint trial of the cases is to be held, operates automatically to merge the pleadings filed in the separate cases?