Grindle v. Rush
Grindle v. Rush
Opinion of the Court
stated the case, and delivered the opinion of the court:
In this case the plaintiff, by his prochain ami, declares against
The second count sets out a promise to cure the leg, and avers-a breach, as in the first count, and loss of the limb by amputation, per quod, he, the plaintiff, sustained damages to the amount of ten thousand dollars.
*To this declaration the defendants plead not guilty, and the cause was submitted to the jury on the last circuit, who found a verdict for the plaintiff.
The counsel for the defendants then moved the court for a new trial. First, because the verdict was against the evidence; and. second, because the defendants’ counsel moved the court to charge the jury that they must be satisfied, before they could find a verdict for the plaintiff, that there was a contract and special promise made by the defendants to attend upon and cure the leg of the plaintiff,and that the declaration was not sustained by proving-that the defendants were called on as physicians and surgeons to visit the plaintiff in the ordinary way, which instruction the court refused to give, but charged the jury that the declaration was-sustained by proving that the defendants held themselves out to-the world as physicians and surgeons, and .that they called and attended the plaintiff as such, and that no promise to cure the leg need be proven. This motion for a new trial is reserved for-decision here.
The first point made by the motion may be disposed of at once..
The undertaking in each count of the declaration is laid as an-absolute undertaking and promise to set the bone and cure the' leg! Does the law imply any such contract ? This point was decided in the case of Hardin v. Matthews, in Geauga county,, several years since, in the negative, and the plaintiff nonsuited. It was afterward so decided in Bliss v. Long, in Cuyahoga county. Hardin v. Matthews was a case of tinea capita, and Bliss v. Long a case of obstetrics. In the first the declaration charged an absolute undertaking to cure, and in the last to deliver; and the-court were of the opinion that the law implied no such undertaking, and as no such express promise could be proved, the plaintiff could not recover. In the case of Gallagher and Wife v. Thompson, Sup. C. 466, the declaration, among other things, averred a promise by the defendant, who was a physician and surgeon, to set and cure Mrs. Gallagher’s leg. Evidence was introduced to prove the surgeon’s retainer, in the usual way, *and his attendance, that the leg was not cured, but was rendered nearly useless. A motion was made by the defendant for a nonsuit, because there was no evidence of an express promise to cure, and the law did not imply such promise, and the motion was sustained. So far as we can learn, then, the decisions have been-uniform on the circuit whenever the question has been presented. If a lawyer is retained, there is an implied'obligation to bring to his client’s aid integrity and ordinary judgment and skill, but not that he shall conduct his client’s cause to a successful issue.
The surgeon engages the ordinary skill of the profession in reducing a fractured bone, and diligence and care in his subsequent treatment, and to use his exertion and endeavor to cure, but a cure itself is frequently beyond his physical power. It depends not on him. The accoucheur engages the skill of his profession, and that he will endeavor safely to deliver, but there is no-positive obligation to produce this result. The event is in the hands of Him who giveth life, and not within the physical control of the most skillful of the profession. On the whole, we are of
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Samuel Grindle, by his next Friend, George W. Grindle v. Leonard Rush and Randolph R. Greene
- Status
- Published