9 Pa. Super. 8 | Pa. Super. Ct. | 1898
Opinion by
This action was brought to recover the sum of $825 for professional services rendered by the plaintiff to Dr. Win. H. Mat-lack, who was afflicted with partial paralysis in October, 1893, and continued in precarious health until July, 1896, when his illness resulted in death. During this interval Dr. Matlack received counsel and service, from a number of his professional brethren, one of whom, the plaintiff, claims from his estate the amount mentioned, on the basis of one dollar for each visit made by him. Dr. Matlack and the plaintiff advocated and practised the same system of medicine in the borough' of Downingtown, and were professional friends.
On the trial of the cause the defendant offered evidence to prove that it was the universal custom with physicians not to charge for their attendance upon their fellow physicians; that the ethics of the profession prohibited such charges being made; that it was the custom among physicians in Downing-town not to charge for attendance on physicians, one physician on another; that as a matter of professional ethics it was regarded as improper and unprofessional for one physician to charge another for his attendance. Evidence to sustain each of these offers was rejected for the reason stated in excluding the evidence under the first offer, viz: “I do not think that the evidence is admissible. The law presumes where one renders services to another that the party who receives them contemplates to pay for them. There is an implied contract. This is an effort to deprive one of that legal presumption by showing that it is a custom amongst physicians in the neighborhood not to charge each other, and whilst that may be true among the bulk of the physicians I do not think it can control the intention of one man, or override the presumption that the law creates in his favor, that where he renders a service to another, whether a physician or not, there is a contract on the part of the party receiving it to pay for it.” The rejection of the evidence as offered warrants us in assuming that the custom could