Carrell v. Denton’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

4 federal appellate · 24 state decisions

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 34 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““The wrongful act from which the damages sued for resulted, consists of the negligent act of Dr. Carrell in failing to remove the gauze sponge from inside the body of the plaintiff before the incision in his body was closed. The plaintiff’s cause of action for the resulting damages accrued at that time. Houston Water Works Co. v. Kennedy, 70 Tex. 233 , 8 S.W. 36 . The statute of limitation began to run at that time and had run its prescribed course, without interruption, before this suit was brought. The plaintiff’s counsel insists that the statute did not begin to run until November 1935, when the plaintiff discovered that the gauze sponge had been left inside his body by Dr. Carrell. The proposition which lies at the bottom of this contention is to the effect that the relation between a surgeon and his patient involves trust and confidence, therefore fraudulent concealment is imputed to Dr. Carrell because of his failure to inform the plaintiff that the gauze sponge had been left inside the plaintiff’s body. The proposition is essentially unsound. In conducting a surgical operation on his patient, and in respect to any treatment he may administer, a surgeon is under the duty to exercise due care. His failure to discharge this duty constitutes negligence and therefore is wrongful — but the failure does not, of itself, constitute fraud or expose the surgeon to the imputation of fraudulent concealment. Among other essential ingredients, a fraudulent concealment in cases of thi”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Stewart v. Janes