Dr. Martin claimed Ts. 125, fees due for attending Mrs. Pate, and the defence put forward was that Dr. Martin was negligent and careless in his treatment of the patient, and that he made a wrong diagnosis of the cause. His Lordship gave judgement for plaintiff, with costs.
In connexion with this case, Mr. Pate has filed a suit in the U.S. Court claiming heavy damages from Dr. Martin.
The full judgement was as follows The action now before me is one for a claim of Tls. 125 by Dr. Paul Martin for medical professional services rendered to Mrs. Pate, wife of the defendant, at his request between the dates January 8 and January 20, 1921. The statement of defence denies liability for the payment of the amount on the ground that the plaintiff "'conducted himself so" unprofessionally, unskilfully incompetently and negligently, that. "he made a wrong diagnosis of the case." That he administered to Mrs. Pate "'poisonous and noxious or dangerous drugs as morphia, atropine, Rochelle Salts, that she became by reason thereof grievously ill and suffered excruciating pain and unnecessarily prolonged anguish." That he failed to use proper care and skill and was guilty of gross '"negligence and utter recklessness, callous neglect and criminal care. lessness, that his. services were wholly useless and that he failed to diagnose that she was suffering from typhoid." There are many other charges thrown wholesale into the statement of defence, but those quoted above will be_sufficient for me to deal with in detail.
These are most serious and grave charges to bring against a medical man and one would have thought that they were sufficient to meet the denial of liability to pay the doctor's bill of Tls. 125.
But the counsel for the defendant added to these serious accusations. I asked counsel in the course o: statements made by him in his address to the Court, if he intended to go so far as to suggest that, Dr. Martin deliberately concealed the fact of typhoid in order that he might have an opportunity of performing an operation. Counsel's reply was, That is one inference? He Imew he had movie a mistake and tried to induce Mr. Pate not to send his wife to any other hospital than Dr, Fearn's, so that he would have no other doctor in attendance, and he would have a free hand to operate, and if he were wrong no one would be any wiser." It is difficult to conceive a more serious accusation against a medical man than that. When such serious charges as these are made they must be completely definitely and conclusively proved because it is the character and future professional career of the plaintiff that is at stake, and placed in issue.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.