Ayash v. Dana Farber Cancer Institute

This motion for partial summary judgment, part of a case involving, inter alia, allegations of libel and invasion of privacy arising from intense publicity over medical errors that led to the death of a patient at a prestigious Boston hospital, raises difficult issues of media law: when is an event “newsworthy,” and when can this issue be decided by the court as a matter of law?

For the reasons that follow, the court concludes that the events reported in the media accounts at issue were indeed newsworthy as a matter of law. Accordingly, the court allows the motion of defendants The Boston…