132 Minn. 128 | Minn. | 1916
Defendants were partners as physicians and surgeons at Cloquet, Minnesota. Plaintiff- claims that defendant Dolan, who died after this action was commenced, was guilty of negligence and want of skill in his treatment of an injury received by plaintiff. The trial resulted in a verdict of $2,000 against defendant Fleming, who appeals from an order denying his motion in the alternative for judgment notwithstanding the verdict or a new trial.
Plaintiff was in the employ of Johnson-Wentworth Company in skidding logs near Cloquet. February 5, 1914, while engaged in this employment, his left leg was fractured between the knee and ankle. Defendants operated a hospital at Cloquet and were there engaged in the practice of their profession. Johnson-Wentworth Company and defendants had an arrangement by which the company deducted 75 cents per month from the pay of each employee, and turned this over to defendants, who agreed for this compensation to care for and treat injured employees which the company should send to them. Plaintiff, after his injury, received a ticket from his employer, presented it to defendants, and was taken into the hospital and treated. Upon this state of facts defendant bases a claim that the relation of physician and patient did not exist.
Defendant Dolan attended plaintiff. The injured leg was put in a plaster cast and allowed to so remain for a period of eleven days. The cast was then removed, and a new one put on. Soon after this plaintiff observed that his left foot turned outward, and called Dr. Dolan’s attention to this condition, which, however, continued to exist during his eleven weeks’ stay at the hospital and existed at the time of the trial. The cause of this eversion of the foot was imperfect approximation of the fractured ends of the bones. Plaintiff claimed and the evidence tended to show that this failure to get a straight union was due to the omission of defendants to apply an extension weight to the injured limb. Negligence is also claimed in respect to .their failure to use a “fracture box” or to take an X-ray photograph for the purpose of diagnosis. The evidence leaves no doubt that there was a poor result, and the inquiry on this branch of the ease is whether the finding that this was due to negligence or want of skill on the part of Dr. Dolan is sustained by the evidence.
June 1, 1914, plaintiff and his employer, Johnson-Wentworth Company, agreed upon a settlement for the injuries received by plaintiff in the accident, and petitioned the court for its approval under the terms of the Workmen’s Compensation Act. The court approved the settle
The principal contentions of defendant, as indicated in the above statement of facts, are: (1) Assuming that the relation of physician and patient existed, the evidence is not sufficient to justify the jury in finding that the physician failed to exercise that degree of care and skill which the law requires; (2) the relation of physician and patient did not exist; (3) the settlement between plaintiff and his employer bars this action; (4) the damages are excessive. It is further claimed that there were prejudicial errors in certain rulings on the admission of evidence, and in refusing to give certain instructions requested by defendant. There is also a claim of misconduct of counsel.
Error is assigned in sustaining an objection to a question asked of defendant as to whether the treatment by a certain other physician of a fracture in' another case was similar to that employed by Dr. Dolan in the case at bar. That this ruling was proper is plain, but it is perhaps not so clear that the trial court was right in refusing to permit defendant to testify that, judging from his observation and experience in the vicinity of Cloquet, the treatment applied by Dr. Dolan was that used by physicians of ordinary care, skill and caution in and about the vicinity of Cloquet. We think, however, that the ruling should be sustained, on the ground that the standard of care and skill was too limited by the question. It is not the law that defendants’ conduct of the case is to be judged by the degree of skill and care exercised by other physicians in the same village, and we hold that there was no error in sustaining the objection. The question is further discussed in the next paragraph. As to the other rulings on the admission of evidence that are assigned as error, we find nothing to merit special mention.
The decisions in this state do not touch upon the question of the locality in which the physician or surgeon practises as affecting the de
Order affirmed.