City of Decatur v. Fisher

Illinois Supreme Court
City of Decatur v. Fisher, 63 Ill. 241 (Ill. 1872)

City of Decatur v. Fisher

Opinion of the Court

Per Curiam :

This case was before the court at a former term, and the decision then made is reported in 53 Ill. 407. We reversed the judgment solely on the ground that the damages were excessive. There has been another trial, and the jury have found a verdict for a sum a little larger than the former one, and the court gave judgment. The evidence on the second trial shows that the injury to the plaintiff was much more serious than was proven on the first, and we can not again set aside the verdict for the same reasons that induced our former judgment.

A question is raised by appellant as to the form of a certain question suffered by the court to be propounded to the medical witnesses, but this manner of interrogating physicians called as experts is very common and almost unavoidable.

We discover no error in the record, and the judgment must be affirmed.

Judgment affirmed.

Reference

Full Case Name
City of Decatur v. Ada Fisher
Cited By
5 cases
Status
Published
Syllabus
Evidence—medical experts—of the mode of examination. In an action against a city to recover for an injury to the plaintiff, occasioned, as alleged, by falling through a defective sidewalk, the plaintiff asked the, medical witnesses the question, upon an hypothetical statement of the facts as to the manner of the fall and the conduct of the plaintiff thereafter, her mode of treatment, and condition and symptoms, etc., if they would attribute a certain injury to the plaintiff to the fall through the sidewalk, and if such a fall would be sufficient to produce such an injury. Upon objection as to the form of the question, such manner of interrogating physicians called as experts was regarded as very common and almost unavoidable.