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120 Ga. App. 466

171 S.E.2d 318

Williams v. Melton

Court of Appeals of Georgia

Decided October 15, 1969

Court of Appeals of Georgia · decided 1969-10-15

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

“[W^hether the defendant was negligent or acted in an ordinarily skillful manner as a physician... in advising the husband of the risks involved in treatment and obtaining his consent for treatment, including surgery,... depends ultimately upon evaluation of expert medical opinions.” Williams v. Melton, 120 Ga. App. 466 ( 171 SE2d 318 ). The”

quoted by 1 later decision, including 135 Ga. App. 783 - Pierce v. Dowman

Relies on Ginn v. Morgan · Harrison v. Tuggle · 119 Ga. App. 734 - Truluck v. Funderburk

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1969-10-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 14 later decisions — most recently June 1980

14 state decisions

120196919701980decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

Jordan, Presiding Judge.

¶1 Melton and his wife filed separate tort actions against Williams, a physician, based on his alleged malpractice in treating Melton, including surgery, to alleviate urethral strictures. The defendant appeals from the denial of summary judgments on various counts of each petition. Held:

¶2 The record before this court in each of the present cases discloses that whether the defendant was negligent ,or acted in an ordinarily skilful manner as a physician in diagnosing the condition of the plaintiff husband, or in advising the husband of the risks involved in treatment and obtaining his consent for treatment, including surgery, or in determining the necessity of and using surgery instead of continued •. dilation in attempting to relieve the plaintiff husband of his condition, depends ultimately upon the evaluation of expert medical opinions, a matter for determination by the jury and not by the court as a matter of law. “While opinion evidence is sufficient in a proper case to present a jury issue and thus preclude a summary judgment, yet opinion testimony of the ultimate fact to be decided in the case is never sufficient to authorize a summary judgment.” Harrison v. Tuggle, 225 Ga. 211 (167 SE2d 395); Ginn v. Morgan, 225 Ga. 192 (167 SE2d 393). For recent application in a mal-practice case, reversing the grant of a summary judgment for the defendant, see Truluck v. Funderburk, 119 Ga. App. 734 (168 SE2d 657).

¶3 Judgments affirmed.

Hall and Whitman, JJ., concur. *467 Argued May 7, 1969 Decided October 15, 1969. Fulcher, Fulcher, Hagler, Harper & Reed, Gould B. Hagler, for appellant. Lanier, Powell, Cooper & Cooper, Jack L. Cooper, for appellees.
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