Coombs v. James

Citations

• 82 Wash. 403
• 144 P. 536

Syllabus

<p>Trial — Province of Court and Jury — Directed Verdict. Tbe verdict of a jury is conclusive upon all disputed facts, but tbe court may direct tbe judgment when warranted by tbe undisputed facts and tbe law applicable thereto.</p> <p>Physicians and Surgeons — Malpractice—Abortion—-Proximate Cause — Evidence — Sufficiency. In an action for malpractice, in giving a wrong diagnosis and in causing an abortion by negligent application of electrical treatment, tbe evidence is insufficient to show that sucb treatment was tbe proximate cause of tbe injury, or to sustain judgment for plaintiff, where there was evidence to tbe effect that, at her first visit, plaintiff was advanced in pregnancy about two months, that defendant advised that she was not pregnant but suffering from delayed menstruation, and that, while taxing mild applications of electricity for tbe latter trouble, tbe plaintiff, as she admitted, bad, without obtaining a physician’s prescription, purchased an ounce bottle of extract of cotton root, which she took in certain doses until all bad been taken, and, according to all speaking with knowledge of the subject, cotton root is an abortive medicine, and when taken internally as plaintiff took it, will produce an abortion within the time of plaintiff’s miscarriage, depending somewhat upon the physical condition and susceptibility of the patient; since the proximate cause of the injury cannot he left to speculation and conjecture.</p>