157 N.Y.S. 962 | N.Y. App. Div. | 1916
The plaintiff, defendant’s servant, was injured while working on a dead wire which, by negligence imputable to the defendant, became charged with an electric current. The plaintiff received several burns, quite inconsiderable in severity. At a later period a hernia appeared on the right side, for which he submitted to a successful operation, but thereupon a hernia appeared on the left side. The verdict for $7,500 is excessive, unless the plaintiff is entitled to recovery for the hernia on one or both sides. There is conflict of opinions between the plaintiff’s expert and the defendant’s two experts as to the probability of the accident causing the hernia. The plaintiff relied for medical opinion entirely upon Dr. Churchill, who, shortly before the trial, made an examination for the purpose of testifying. He was asked an hypothetical question, which contains the assumption that the plaintiff before the accident was in good health, and “never experienced any stomach trouble, or pain in the stomach, or in the region of the abdomen.” Dr. Churchill answered upon the facts assumed that the injury received on the day in question was an efficient and producing cause of both ruptures. He later said: “Q. That is, the burns—the burns and shock of the electrical current was sufficient, you say, to cause the rupture % A. No, not the burns or the shock, but the sudden contraction of the muscles that takes place as the result of the electric current, the sudden contraction of all the abdom
The judgment and orders should be affirmed, with costs.
Present —Jenks, P. J., Thomas, Carr, Stapleton and Putnam, JJ.
Judgment and orders unanimously affirmed, with costs.