Martin v. Commonwealth

Presentment of a claim under the Massachusetts Tort Claims Act is a condition precedent to suit more easily *527expressed than effectuated. See G. L. c. 258, § 4. See also Vasys v. Metropolitan Dist. Commn., 387 Mass. 51, 52 (1982). We consider in this appeal whether a letter sent on behalf of a mother and her two children sufficed as a presentment of the mother’s individual claims for negligent infliction of emotional distress and loss of consortium arising from the children’s ingestion of lead paint. We conclude that because the theories of liability of both the mother’s and the children’s…