Helland v. Bridenstine

Citations

• 55 Wash. 470
• 104 P. 626
• 1909 Wash. LEXIS 785

Syllabus

<p>. Malpractice — Negligence—Evidence—Sufficiency. There is sufficient evidence of negligence to make a case for the jury, in an action for malpractice, in the use of infected and unsterilized instruments from which a disease might have been contracted, where the defendant denied plaintiff’s statement that he took the instruments from a drawer without cleansing them or that he ever did so or kept them there, and two other witnesses testified that on similar examinations made by him he took the same instruments from the same place and used them in the same way that plaintiff described.</p> <p>Same. There is sufficient evidence to sustain a verdict for malpractice in the use of infected and unsterilized instruments from which a disease might have been contracted, where there was evidence tending to show the negligent use of instruments, without cleansing, that prior thereto plaintiff was free from the disease and could have contracted it in no other way, and became affected within the usual time thereafter for the disease to germinate; as it was only necessary to show a chain of circumstances from which the ultimate fact might reasonably be inferred.</p> <p>Trial — Province of Court and Jury — Expert Evidence. A statement by expert witnesses that a disease cannot develop under certain conditions does not require withdrawal of the issue from the jury, where there was a question for the jury as to the existence of the facts recited on which the conclusion was based.</p> <p>Evidence — Opinions—Medical Experts. A hypothetical question to a medical expert may embody the very fact ultimately to be found, where the inference from the facts proven involved a question of medical science on which the expert’s opinion was proper.</p> <p>Appeal — Review—Harmless Error — Instructions—Measure op Damages. In an action for malpractice it is not reversible error to refuse to give an instruction that the jury could not take into consideration the loss of service or earnings of the pla