06/12/2010 // West Palm Beach, FL, USA // Tara Monks // Tara Monks
Boston, MA – The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court dismissed a lawsuit filed by a couple whose son was killed in a 2001 plane crash in Davers on Friday, June 11, 2010; on the decision that medical examiners could not be sued if they make mistakes in autopsy reports. The decision was reported by The Boston Globe.
The lawsuit was filed by Joseph and Marilyn LeBlanc. Their son, Joseph Jr., was killed in a plane crash that killed three. The autopsy report the LeBlancs received contained a mistake that lead the family to fear their son’s remains were mixed up with some of the pilot’s.
The family spent $20,000 to exhume their son’s body and perform DNA tests. The tests proved that Joseph Jr. was the only body in the grave. The family later learned a staff of the state Office of the Chief Medical Examiner had realized there was a mistake. The employee corrected the error, but did not notify the family until the exhumation had been performed.
Justice Ralph Gants wrote, “Without question, the OCME should have told the LeBlancs that the autopsy report was in error….as soon as it recognized the error, so that the LeBlancs could have the peace of mind of knowing that the body they had buried was truly their son and not the pilot.”
Although the Judge acknowledged the LeBlancs were harmed by the actions of the medical examiner’s office, he said power public policy reasons warrant protecting medical examiners from being sued for autopsy conclusions.
Gants explained, “If the surviving spouse or next of kin could file a complaint against the OCME concerning the content of an autopsy report, the paramount public interest in obtaining the truth would be compromised by the fear of liability, especially if the truth were to reveal a cause of death that the family is unwilling or unable to accept.”
The judge stated the goal of the medical examiner is to serve the public, not to protect themselves from lawsuits.
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