Rodriguez v. Cambridge Housing Authority

Answering special questions, a jury awarded damages to the plaintiffs for injuries they received as a result of multiple invasions of the apartment Carmen Rodriguez2 leased from the defendant, the Cambridge Housing Authority (CHA). The trial judge allowed the defendant’s motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict (judgment n.o.v.), agreeing with the CHA that the plaintiffs’ claim of negligent failure to change the apartment’s locks had not been adequately made in the presentment letter, as required under § 4 of G. L. c. 258, the Massachusetts Tort Claims Act, and that there was…