Citron v. Fields

85 P.2d 534, 30 Cal. App. 2d 51, 1938 Cal. App. LEXIS 443
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedDecember 20, 1938
DocketCiv. 2150
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 85 P.2d 534 (Citron v. Fields) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Citron v. Fields, 85 P.2d 534, 30 Cal. App. 2d 51, 1938 Cal. App. LEXIS 443 (Cal. Ct. App. 1938).

Opinion

is a practicing physician in the state of California, and has his office in Hemet, Riverside County, a town of about 3,000 population. Defendant and appellant herein is an actor.

Some time prior to June 12, 1936, appellant was temporarily living at Saboba Hot Springs, a few miles distant from Hemet, and was a patient of respondent. Respondent was paid for his services up to that date.

On June 12, 1936, respondent was called to attend appellant and found him to be a very sick man, suffering from bronchial pneumonia. Appellant was afflicted with poly-neuritis and Paget’s disease and was in the habit of drinking whiskey day and night, consuming from one to two quarts each twenty-four hours. He was a man fifty-six years of age and in a very serious condition, due primarily to the pneumonia. Respondent advised hospitalization at once, to which appellant agreed, upon the express condition that re *54 spondent would go with him to the hospital and remain with him as long as he remained there, and if consultants were called, respondent was to remain in charge of the case.

Appellant was taken to the Riverside Community Hospital in an ambulance and respondent arranged for a consultant who was a specialist in the diseases of the chest. Later, he arranged for a further consultant or specialist in the treatment of pneumonia. All agreed that the appellant had a very slight chance of recovery from pneumonia alone at his age, and less chance because of his drinking habits, his affliction with polyneuritis and Paget’s disease.

Respondent testified that appellant left the hospital cured of the pneumonia July 5, 1936. That he left cured is disputed by rather convincing evidence.

The respondent began practicing his profession at Hemet, California, in 1931. Immediately before that time he had practiced in Beverly Hills, California, for a period of twelve years, specializing in obstetrics. After moving to Hemet, California, his license to practice medicine and surgery was revoked by the State Medical Board in October, 1932, and such revocation was vacated in February, 1934, on certain terms and conditions. He has been practicing his profession since that date at Hemet. During the early part of his practice in Hemet, a large percentage of his patients came from places outside of the vicinity of Hemet, but during the latter part, most of his patients came from Hemet and vicinity.

During the time respondent was in attendance upon the appellant at the Riverside Community Hospital, he occupied a room immediately adjoining the room occupied by the appellant. His board and room were paid for by appellant. During said time he made one or two trips a week from the hospital to his home at Hemet for the purpose of securing changes of clothes, and made a trip to Arrowhead Hot Springs to determine if it would be a satisfactory place to take appellant when he was able to leave the hospital.

Respondent had another patient at the Riverside Community Hospital during said time under his personal care, an obstetrical case. This patient was admitted to the hospital on June 21, 1936, and left on July 4, 1936.

During the early part of the time that respondent was in attendance upon appellant at the hospital, aside from the *55 consultations hereinbefore mentioned, he made more or less frequent trips to the room occupied by the appellant in the discharge of his duties as a physician, sometimes in answer to a call from the nurse or patient, and on a few occasions, as early as 6 or 7 o ’clock in the morning.

There is considerable in the record concerning the respondent’s treatment of and attendance upon appellant. Appellant went from the Riverside Community Hospital to a sanitarium in Los Angeles County for care and treatment, where he remained for a considerable time.

A doctor called by the appellant as an expert witness, who was familiar with the customs and practice of physicians and surgeons in the community of Hemet and Riverside County in fixing their charges, testified in response to a hypothetical question that the reasonable value of the services performed in the ease at bar was between $1,000 and $2,500.

Respondent brought this action for the sum of $12,000, alleging it to be the reasonable value of the services rendered. After trial, judgment was rendered by the court for the sum prayed for, to wit, $12,000.

Defendant appealed, and specifies among other things, error in the admission or rejection of evidence and that the evidence is insufficient to support the findings and judgment.

First we will consider the admission of certain expert testimony intended to prove the reasonable value of said services.

The testimony on the point here under discussion is that some time about the middle of May, 1936, respondent had a conversation with appellant at appellant’s apartment at Saboba Hot Springs, in which the appellant told respondent: “ ‘They are trying to cut me off from my income.’ ... Q. You will please state what was said by Mr. Fields concerning his income to you at that time. A. He stated, ‘They are trying to cut me off from my contract which I am getting $6,000 a week. ’ I said, ‘ Are you still getting it ? ’ He said, ‘Yes, I have been getting it ever since I left the studio. They are trying to cut me off. That was why they are trying to send this fellow out here, to find if I can recover, so they can cut me off.’ I said, ‘Well, Bill, when the doctor comes, we will see whether he has to report it. He probably will make a report, and then you can tell.’ And subsequent to that examination, and after that examination, I understood that on June 1st he was taken off of his income for a certain *56 period of time until he would show whether he was going to be able to return to the studio or not. ... I said, ‘Well, you have other income; you won’t miss it,’—after I found out that he was taken off. I said, ‘You have some stocks and bonds, haven’t you?’ He said, ‘No, I don’t own a piece of real estate, or any stocks or bonds. I have got $700,000 in banks all through the country, and I have got to live off that while I haven’t got this income.’ ”

We have quoted the above testimony as being all of the evidence offered by respondent relative to the income of appellant. His income of $6,000 a week was a drawing account that was terminated on June 1, 1936. The record does not disclose whether the weekly payment was ever restored to appellant. It does not disclose when the payment of $6,000 per week began. It was further shown by the appellant’s testimony that he was under a contract with a studio to make three pictures at the rate of $100,000 a picture, and that the $6,000 per week was to be applied upon the payment of the same. His net annual income for the year 1935 was $57,687.51 and for the year 1936 it was $82,238.93, as shown by federal income tax returns.

It would therefore appear from the above testimony that it sufficiently shows that the appellant had the ability to pay for the reasonable value of the services rendered.

Respondent called as an expert witness a physician from another county, to wit, Santa Monica, in Los Angeles County, who stated he was familiar with the various methods used by physicians and surgeons in determining the just and fair charges for services rendered.

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Bluebook (online)
85 P.2d 534, 30 Cal. App. 2d 51, 1938 Cal. App. LEXIS 443, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/citron-v-fields-calctapp-1938.