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165 Mich. 554

Adams v. Henry

Michigan Supreme Court

Decided May 8, 1911

Michigan Supreme Court · decided 1911-05-08

Case by Nellie Adams against Thomas J. Henry for malpractice. A judgment for defendant, on a verdict directed by the court, is reviewed by plaintiff on writ of error. This is an action against defendant, a physician, for malpractice. On December 26, 1907, plaintiff, who was then in an advanced state of pregnancy, claims to have received a jar while alighting from a street car which brought on premature labor. On that evening defendant was called and prescribed for her.

Cited by 2 later decisions — most recently March 1968

2 state decisions

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Reversed · Decided 1911-05-08

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Brooke, J.

¶1(after stating the facts). We are of opinion, if plaintiff had been permitted to produce, and had been able to produce, testimony tending to establish the statements contained in the offer, that it cannot be said, as a matter of law, that defendant was not negligent. If defendant was present and responded personally to each call that is said to have been made upon him between 11 and 12:30 o’clock, and upon each occasion agreed to at once attend the plaintiff and failed to keep his promise, we think he should be held liable, if his failure to attend resulted in injury to plaintiff. We note that plaintiff did not offer to prove that the laceration of the cervix and the rupture of the perineum resulted from defendant’s failure to attend as it is alleged he had agreed. The declaration contains the averment, however, and we are disposed to the view that plaintiff should have been permitted to offer such testimony as she possessed pertinent to the issue.

¶2Defendant contends that, inasmuch as by his plea he shows that he has obtained a judgment against plaintiff in justice’s court (now pending on appeal to the circuit court) for his services rendered at the time of plaintiff’s confinement, the judgment operates as a bar to the present action. That question was not passed upon by the court below, and has not been briefed by plaintiff in this court. Until an adjudication is had upon the question in the circuit court, we must decline to consider it.

¶3The judgment is reversed, and a new trial ordered.

Hooker, Moore, McAlvay, and Blair, JJ., concurred.
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