Keene v. Brigham & Women's Hospital, Inc.

This is a malpractice case in which a baby suffered catastrophic harm within hours of his birth at the defendant hospital. We are asked to decide whether (1) a default judgment on liability was properly entered as a sanction for the defendant’s failure to produce in discovery relevant hospital records that it admittedly had lost; (2) damages assessed against the defendant are limited by the $20,000 cap imposed by G. L. c. 231, § 85K, on damages recoverable from a charitable corporation for a tort committed in the course of the performance of its charitable purpose; and (3) general damages may…