Dougherty v. Oliviero

CARTER, Justice.

The defendant, Dr. Oliviero, was Stephen Dougherty’s treating physician at a Portland hospital in November 1977. In October 1979, Stephen Dougherty and his mother filed a complaint in Superior Court claiming damages as a result of defendant’s alleged negligence in diagnosing and treating a medical problem with Stephen Dough-erty’s knee.

In his answer to the complaint, the defendant denied liability and also raised, as an affirmative defense, the plaintiffs’ failure to comply with 24 M.R.S.A. § 2903 (Supp.1980), which requires written notice of claim to be served on the…