Guarracino v. Beaudry

The plaintiff, administratrix of her husband’s estate, sought a writ of mandamus from the Superior Court (Perkins, J.) to force the defendant, a medical referee, to alter his determination that the decedent committed suicide. The trial court found the plaintiff had not satisfied the burden of proof necessary to obtain a mandamus and held against her. We must decide whether mandamus is the proper remedy to challenge an asserted improper determination of this sort by a medical referee.

The decedent was found in his attached one-car garage slumped on the floor at the rear of his car on February…