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MATSUYAMA v. BIRNBAUM

SJC-09964.

452 Mass. 1 (2008)

ROBIN K. MATSUYAMA, executrix, v. NEIL S. BIRNBAUM & another.

Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, Norfolk.

July 23, 2008.

Attorney(s) appearing for the Case

Peter C. Knight (Tory A. Weigand with him) for Neil S. Birnbaum.

Max Borten (Sidney Gorovitz with him) for the plaintiff.

John D. Bruce, for Dedham Medical Associates, Inc., was present but did not argue.

Paul F. Leavis, Michael J. Harris, & J. Michael Conley, for Massachusetts Academy of Trial Attorneys, amicus curiae, submitted a brief.

John J. Barter, for Professional Liability Foundation, amicus curiae, submitted a brief.

Present: MARSHALL, C.J., GREANEY, IRELAND, SPINA, COWIN, CORDY, & BOTSFORD, JJ.

MARSHALL, C.J.

We are asked to determine whether Massachusetts law permits recovery for a "loss of chance" in a medical malpractice wrongful death action, where a jury found that the defendant physician's negligence deprived the plaintiff's decedent of a less than even chance of surviving cancer. We answer in the affirmative.3 As we later explain more fully, the loss of chance doctrine views a...

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