Willis v. MacDougall & Southwick
Willis v. MacDougall & Southwick
Opinion of the Court
Appellant, a physician and surgeon, sued respondent for the reasonable value of certain surgical operations performed by him upon one of respondent’s employees, alleging the value of the services to be reasonably worth $750. The case of appellant was to the effect that one Carpenter, president
It was shown, and admitted by Carpenter, that, prior .to the incurring of the bills in question, he had obtained authority to carry on the payrolls, as pensioners, certain employees who had grown old in the service of the company, and that Stewart was one of them. The trial judge sustained a challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence, took the case from the jury, and entered a judgment of dismissal.
Eespondent contends, which was doubtless the theory adopted by the trial court:
First, that on the facts the doctor failed to sustain the burden. That would be a question of fact for the jury to determine.
Second, that there was no evidence to show authority on the part of Carpenter, that he expressly denied it, and no such authority can be implied. That has been answered contrary to the contention of respondent very early in the history of this court. In Carrigan v. Port Crescent Improvement Co., 6 Wash. 590, 34 Pac. 148, it was decided that, “when a corporation names some person as its manager, and as such allows him in a. large measure to control all its business transactions, it must be held responsible for the acts of such manager in the name of the company until it has been affirmatively shown that such acts were unauthorized.” The above decision was followed in Citizens’ National Bank of Tacoma v. Wintler, 14 Wash. 558, 45 Pac. 38, 53 Am. St. 890, and again approved in Parr v. Pacific Storage Warehouse, 124 Wash. 26, 213 Pac. 677.
But it is further contended by respondent that, when Carpenter denied any such authority to employ a
It is true there is no contradiction of the testimony of Carpenter that he had no such authority except the circumstances that, while he said he had no such authority, the bills of the other physicians and the hospital were paid as direct obligations of the company, about three years before trial, and that as Carpenter said, his acts had not been questioned. Hence, the question as to whether or not Carpenter’s bare denials were sufficient to overcome the presumption under our decisions above quoted and cited, remains a question of fact for the jury.
It is true that the general rule is that,
“Where a person requests the performance of a service, and the request is complied with and the service performed, the law raises an implied promise to pay the reasonable value of the service,”
and that the general rule is further that,
“This implication does not obtain, where one person requests a physician to perform services for a patient, unless the relation of the person making the request to the patient is such as raises a legal obligation on his part to call in a physician and pay for the service.” Meisenbach v. Southern Cooperage Co., 45 Mo. App. 232.
This is but a statement of the common sense rule which should obtain, for it would be an unjust and senseless rule to require a person obtaining the services of a physician upon a sudden emergency of injury or sickness of another, to be impliedly liable for the services. It is also a common sense rule to imply liability on the part of a person having such relation to a patient as raises a legal obligation on his part to call
The direct promise to pay, if made by the general manager, as testified by appellant, was not within the statute of frauds. Burns v. Bradford-Kennedy Lumber Co., 61 Wash. 276, 112 Pac. 359; Goldie-Klenert Distributing Co. v. Bothwell, 67 Wash. 264, 121 Pac. 60, Ann. Cas. 1913D 849; Lovell v. Haye, 85 Wash. 109, 147 Pac. 632. The question, therefore, as to whether it was the obligation of the company is a question of authority and power on the part of Carpenter, the general manager, to bind the company. That question was not concluded by the denials of Carpenter as to his authority. His authority would not be legally determined either by his own assertions or denials thereof. It does not fall within the rule of the case of Parr v. Pacific Storage Warehouse, supra, where the prima facie case made by respondent was overcome by conclusive testimony as to lack of authority on the part of one holding the position of manager of the corporation to execute and deliver a promissory note. In that case it was not rested upon denial of authority by the manager, but the stockholders and other officers of the corporation showed and testified to the lack of authority of the manager to execute such note. Such testimony was uncontradicted. It therefore made a conclusive case as to lack of authority of the. manager. That is far from true in this case. See Ward v. Samuels & Bro., 37 R. I. 438, 93 Atl. 649. Respondent makes copious quotations from the above case which, upon being
Third, It is contended by respondent that if any promises were made, they were promises of Carpenter personally and not promises of the corporation,, and were, therefore, within the statute of frauds.
What has been said heretofore has disposed of this question as it was a direct promise to answer for the debt.
Fourth, It is also contended that the judgment is right because three separate treatments and attendances on the part of appellant were shown, and no attempt was made to segregate. He simply charged $750 for the whole and appellant claims that he only saw Carpenter once.
Appellant’s testimony simply covers the whole treatment, service and engagement, if his testimony is to be believed. There was, therefore, no necessity to segregate for each attendance and treatment.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.