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Garcia v. Essex County Sheriff's Dep't11/10/2005
4 Mass. at 189. There is no such statutory indication here. See ibid. (declining to hold that presentment to the city solicitor is equivalent to presentment to the city manager, and stating that " he city solicitor, though he or she may advise the city manager, does not possess the authority to settle a claim within the meaning of the statute"). Furthermore, the record presents no evidence that the attorney directly acknowledged representing the sheriff or that the sheriff had direct notice of this claim. Contrast Carifio v. Watertown, 27 Mass. App. Ct. at 575 (analogizing to a hypothetical situation where, if the town attorney specifically wrote to the claimant that the attorney "represent the town manager, who has received notice of your making a claim," and directed the claimant to send his reply to the office of the town clerk, such a reply would "count . . . as a communication for practical purposes to the town manager through his representative").
Content of Notice
The statute does not state what must be included in the presentment letter. See Martin v. Commonwealth, 53 Mass. App. Ct. at 529 ("the requisite sufficiency of content in a presentment is easier to outline than to apply"). In Gilmore v. Commonwealth, 417 Mass. at 723, the Supreme Judicial Court observed that a "presentment letter should be precise in identifying the legal basis of a plaintiff's claim" and should not be "so obscure that educated public officials should find themselves baffled or misled with respect to [the plaintiff's] assertion of a claim . . . which constitutes a proper subject for suit within G. L. c. 258." See Martin v. Commonwealth, supra (discussing "the Gilmore test"); Rodriguez v. Cambridge Hous. Authy., 59 Mass. App. Ct. at 134.
Here, the only allegation found in the presentment letters is that an automobile accident occurred while Garcia was being transported by the ECSD, which resulted in his injuries. There was no statement providing notice of the legal basis of liability. Nor was there a detailed description of the facts from which to infer the basis of the claim. Contrast Martin v. Commonwealth, 53 Mass. App. Ct. at 530 (letter "precisely and unequivocally" set forth the factual basis of the claims); Rodriguez v. Cambridge Hous. Authy., 59 Mass. App. Ct. at 129 (letter provided a detailed description of three home invasions, including the date and character of each incident and the types of damages sustained). Garcia's letters do not assert that his injuries were caused by negligence or wrongdoing, nor did they identify G. L. c. 258 as a basis of liability. Contrast Martin v. Commonwealth, 53 Mass. App. Ct. at 527, 530 (while the presentment letter, captioned "Claim for damages under M.G.L. c. 258, s. 2," was "not a model of particularity," the "public official could clearly ascertain that, if substantiated, the claims would fall within the ambit of G. L. c. 258"); Rodriguez v. Cambridge Hous. Authy., 59 Mass. App. Ct. at 135-136 (even though a "potentially important fact" was omitted from the presentment letter, it still made clear its allegation that the defendant acted negligently in maintaining the property securely).
Garcia's letters lend themselves to confusion regarding the basis for the claim: the form of the initial notice resembles an automobile insurance personal injury protection (PIP) claim where no allegation of fault need be made. In such cases the response of an insurer is to focus on the medical and wage issues. Also, the defendant's duty to provide medical care to Garcia, who was in the defendant's custody, is a constitutional duty, see Jackson v. Commissioner of Correction, 39 Mass. App. Ct. 566, 569 (1995), not the kind of duty covered by the MTCA. Theref
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