DaRosa v. Speedway LLC

**What happened:** This case involved a medical malpractice claim where a patient had a foreign object removed from their eye at Washington Hospital Center. During the legal process, the hospital lost this critical piece of evidence - the actual object that was taken from the patient's eye. When the case went to trial, the patient's lawyers asked the judge to tell the jury that they could assume the missing evidence would have hurt the hospital's case. However, the trial judge refused to give this instruction, and the jury ruled in favor of the hospital. **What the court decided:** The appeals court overturned the trial court's decision and ordered a new trial. The appeals court found that the hospital's loss of the crucial evidence, combined with the trial judge's refusal to instruct the jury about the missing evidence, prevented the patient from getting a fair trial. **Why this matters for workers:** This ruling protects employees and patients when employers or institutions lose important evidence that could help prove their case. It establishes that when an employer destroys or loses key evidence, courts should tell juries they can assume that evidence would have been damaging to the employer's defense.