Pullman Palace Car Co. v. Bluhm

Mr. Justice Dickey delivered the opinion of the Court: We can not inquire into or consider the proposition of counsel for appellant, that, as he says, “the only causes of the injury were the carelessness of appellee and that of his fellow-servants.” What was the cause of the injury, or the combination of causes producing the result, is a question of fact, which, by law, it is not the duty of this court to consider. So, also, is the question as to whether the damages are, or are not, excessive. ... /It is insisted that the court erred in permitting plaintiff to prove, in enhancement of his damages, that his arm, which was broken between the shoulder and elbow, was not cured, and that the parts of the bone, instead of uniting in one, had failed to unite, and formed what is called a “false joint.” Appellant insists that this last was the result of bad surgery, and, to be proven, should have been set out as special damages, not being, as he suggests, such damages as ordinarily arise from a broken arm. We think the declaration is sufficiently specific to admit the proof. Whether this particular ailment (the false joint) was, or was not, the result of the breaking of the arm as a proximate cause, or the result of a new, independent factor, for which appellant was not responsible, could not be determined by the court as a question of law. It could be properly tested only by hearing the evidence and submitting the questions of fact to a jury, under appropriate instructions. There is evidence tending to show that had this broken arm received ordinary care and ordinary professional skill, the parts would have united with little or no permanent injury, and on this hypothesis alone appellant insists that the matter of this false joint should have been, at least hypothetically, excluded from the jury. We understand the law on this subject to be, that plaintiff can not hold defendant answerable for any injury caused, even in part, by the fault of plaintiff in failing to use ordinary care or ordinary judgment, or for any injury not resulting from the fault of defendant, but caused by some new intervening cause not incident to the injury caused by defendant’s wrong. Thus, in this case, if it be conceded that the false joint, under proper care and skill, would not have resulted from the breaking of the arm alone, but was brought about by the subsequent separation of the parts after they had been properly set, and before nature had formed a firm union, then, if this subsequent separation of the parts had been caused by an assault and battery by a stranger, or some foreign cause with which appellant had no connection, and which was not in its nature incident to a broken arm, plainly appellant ought not to be held to answer for the false joint; but if appellee exercised ordinary care to keep the parts together, and used ordinary care in the selection of surgeons and doctors, and nurses, if needed, and employed those of ordinary skill and care in their profession, and still by some unskillful or negligent act of such nurses, or doctors or surgeons, the parts became separated, and the false joint was the result, appellant, if responsible for the breaking of the arm, ought to answer for the injury in the false joint. The appellee, when injured, was bound by law to use ordinary care to render the injury no greater than necessary. It was therefore his duty to employ such surgeons and nurses as ordinary prudence in his situation required, and to use ordinary judgment and care in doing so, and to select only such as were of at least ordinary skill and care in their profession. But the law does not make him an insurer in such case that such surgeons or doctors, or nurses, will be guilty of no negligence, error in judgment, or want of care. " The liability to mistakes in curing is incident to a broken arm, and where such mistakes occur, (the injured party using ordinary care,) the injury resulting from such mistakes is properly regarded as part of the immediate and direct damages resulting from the breaking of the arm. "Without discussing each ruling of the court in the matter of instructions, it is sufficient to say that such rulings were at least as favorable to the appellant as the law would permit, and in some respects more so. Finding no error in law in the record of the proceedings in the circuit court, the judgment of the Appellate Court is hereby affirmed. Judgment affirmed.