57 So. 52 | Ala. Ct. App. | 1911
1. The most difficult practical science of which we have knowledge is the science of medicine. It is a matter of common knowledge that the most eminent diagnosticians frequently disagree as to the true nature or actual cause of a disease. While for some of the simple and common ailments, such as colds, indigestion, headaches, etc., the ordinary man suffering therefrom may, in a rough, practical way, assign the cause, nevertheless, when the cause of a disease or of some material ailment of an important organ of the human body is the subject of inquiry, onty the opinion of a diagnostician, of a man skilled in the mysteries of medicine, can ordinarily be resorted to. And when this is done the law knows that the opinion of an expert is not infallible, and such opinion, when rendered upon a given state of facts, goes to the jury as evidence to be weighed by them, along with the other evidence, in passing on the question as to the true cause of the disease or ailment, if that is a subject of material inquiry before them. Mobile Life Ins. Co. v Walker, 58 Ala. 290; Zinn v. Rice, 161 Mass. 571, 37 N. E. 747.
2. The appellee, after he had alighted, or in attempting to alight, from a train of appellant, received certain injuries, but whether they were received by him through the negligence of appellant’s servants while acting in the line of their employment was a matter in grave - dispute. If the evidence of appellee contained the true version of the matter, there was evidence from which the jury were authorized to find a verdict in his favor. On the other hand, if appellant’s witnesses swore truthfully, then there should have been a verdict for the appellant. Appellant’s testimony tended to show that appellee’s injuries -were received after he had alighted from the train, and were caused by reason of the fact that appellee fell over a stool.
It is not pretended that appellee was a physician or a medical expert. It is our understanding that a witness who is not an expert may testify to facts, but, as above stated, as a general rule, not to deductions or conclusions from facts. In case of an injury, he may state the facts, his symptoms, etc.; but he cannot, .as a rule, state that, such injuries resulted in some particular disease to some organ not actually injured. In the present case, it was entirely permissible for appellee to state that the rib of an umbrella stuck into his chest, that his hands were bruised, his fingers and ribs broken, and his hips injured, and it was also permissible for him to state that after that time he suffered from a cough and a sore throat; but we think that only an expert could say that his lungs or speaking organs, neither of
We are therefore of opinion that the court committed reversible error in permitting the above testimony to go to the jury. The record does not affirmatively show that the admission of this evidence was not prejudicial to appellant, for we do not know what weight the jury attached to it in estimating appellee’s damages.
4. There are a number of other questions presented by the record, but, as they may not arise on a subsequent trial of this case, we refrain from discussing them.
Beversed and remanded.