A patient was suing her physicians for malpractice for failing to diagnose her breast cancer earlier. The patient’s hospital chart contained all of the mammography reports. The earlier mammography reports contained indeterminate findings or concluded there were calcifications present which appeared benign.

   The question was whether the physicians’ conclusions in the earlier mammography reports were incorrect, reflecting negligent misreading of the mammography films. The court could not decide this issue in the patient’s favor because the films themselves had disappeared. So the patient added allegations in her lawsuit directly against the hospital where the films were taken. The additional allegations were for spoliation of the evidence.

   The Superior Court of New Jersey, Appellate Division, ruled in favor of the hospital on the patient’s allegations of spoliation of the evidence. The films were innocently misplaced while being removed for storage at a remote location by an outside medical-records services vendor. There was no proof of actual intent to tamper with or to destroy evidence.

   If the patient could have proven there was deliberate tampering with or destruction of the evidence needed for her malpractice lawsuit, the court said it would have ruled for the patient.

   The court said it would not matter if the one who deliberately tampered with or destroyed the evidence was or was not an actual or potential malpractice defendant.