Della Fletcher v. Frank M. Hand

358 F.2d 549
CourtCourt of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit
DecidedFebruary 18, 1966
Docket19303
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 358 F.2d 549 (Della Fletcher v. Frank M. Hand) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Della Fletcher v. Frank M. Hand, 358 F.2d 549 (D.C. Cir. 1966).

Opinions

McGOWAN, Circuit Judge.

In this suit for alleged negligence by a physician in the treatment of a hip fracture suffered by appellant, the District Court elected to try first an affirmative defense of release. After the taking of evidence on this issue, the court directed a verdict for the appellee doctor. This appeal is from that action. We affirm, although we emphasize that, as will be more fully set forth hereinafter, we act solely by reference to Virginia law.

I

On January 14, 1956, appellant, while babysitting for her daughter at the latter’s home in Virginia, had injured her knee. In a suit filed by appellant against her daughter in a Virginia state court on October 2, 1957, she alleged that this injury was due to her daughter’s negligence in placing a magazine rack in such a position as to present a hazard to appellant. The record before us reflects negotiations with the daughter’s insurance carrier which eventuated in a payment by it of $9000.00 to appellant and a consequent dismissal of the Virginia suit without trial on May 15, 1958. As a part of this settlement, appellant executed and delivered the release relied upon here.1

On July 14, 1957 — some months before the Virginia lawsuit was instituted —appellant fell and sustained the hip fracture. Appellee, who had treated her without complaint for the knee injury, also served as her attending physician in respect of the hip injury. It appears to have been appellant’s belief that the fall causing the hip fracture was due to her injured knee. The record indicates that she said as much to appellee on the day of the fracture, and also at a later date to a doctor for the daughter’s insurance carrier. In any event, there was put in evidence in the District Court the motion for judgment for $25,000 filed by appellant in her Virginia suit. In relating the damages caused by her daughter’s asserted negligence, she stated that “[A]s a further result of said accident, [appellant’s] knee gave way on, to-wit, July 14, 1957, and she fell and broke her hip.” This was immediately followed by the prayer for relief in these terms: “Wherefore by reason of the premises, the undersigned has been injured and suffered damages in the amount of $25,-000.00.”

In a review of his client’s situation in connection with the settlement negotiations, appellant’s Virginia lawyer asked appellee for a current medical report. This was supplied in the form of a letter, dated February 12, 1958. After reciting appellant’s initial representation to him that it was the knee injury which led to the hip fracture, appellee concluded his report as follows:

Following a thorough review of this case a re-evaluation of the amount of permanent-partial disability has been determined. It is [551]*551my opinion, considering the factors of previous disability to left knee; union, contour and function obtained, that a fifty (50) per cent permanent partial disability, involving the entire left lower extremity, exists at this time as a result of injuries sustained on January 15, 1956 and July 14, 1957.

On the same date (i. e., February 12, 1958), appellee submitted to appellant’s Virginia lawyer his bill for $866.75, described as due in respect of the “[E]x-amination and treatment of left knee and left hip.” Appellee’s report and bill were in turn submitted to the daughter’s insurance carrier; and a letter by the latter’s Virginia counsel shows the $866.75 as listed in the total of special damages attributable to the daughter’s negligence, if such there was. The $9,000 settlement followed thereafter.

Appellant brought this suit in the District Court on May 4, 1961. It alleged the fact of the hip fracture, and that appellee had been negligent in his care and treatment of that condition. The allegations of neglect generally centered around an asserted failure of appellee to recognize or discover that there had been, in the course of appellant’s supposed recovery, a non-union of the neck of the left femur, resulting in the eventual necessity of corrective treatment by another physician who allegedly did diagnose the problem accurately when appellant at length sought further medical advice in 1960. Averring that appellee’s “professional care and diagnosis failed to exercise that degree of skill which is ordinarily expected among orthopedic surgeons * * * of the locality,” appellant claimed damage in the amount of $150,000.

II

Both parties to this appeal have assumed the applicability of Virginia law to the issues we are called upon to decide, and have in substance invited us to dispose of this appeal by reference to that law. The parties also seem to be in accord in urging upon us that that law is primarily to be gleaned from Corbett v. Clarke, 187 Va. 222, 46 S.E.2d 327 (1948), and that just disposition of this appeal depends upon an accurate-reading of that case in relation to this. We have no reason to think that the parties’ emphasis upon Virginia law is misconceived, and we abide by their approach in this regard. Needless to say, this means that we address ourselves hereinafter only to Virginia law, and that what we say or do has relevance only to it.

Appellee’s theory in tendering the release as a complete defense can be articulated in this wise: Virginia follows the rule “that where one has received a personal injury as a result of the negligence of another and pursues due care in the selection of a physician or surgeon to treat the injuries and they are aggravated by the negligent treatment of such physician or surgeon, the person causing the original injury is liable for the resulting damage to the full extent.” Fauver v. Bell, 192 Va. 518, 65 S.E.2d 575, 578 (1951). It is equally well settled that “the release of one joint tort-feasor releases the other jointly liable for the same wrong or injury.” Lackey v. Brooks, 204 Va. 428, 132 S.E.2d 461, 464 (1963). To the extent that the original tort-feasor is accountable for the damage caused by medical negligence in the treatment of the injuries caused by him, he stands in the relationship of a joint tort-feasor to the offending physician; and a release to the former discharges the latter. Translated into the terms of this case, if the daughter’s liability extended to the hip fracture, it must be taken to have included aggravating damage caused by negligent medical treatment of that fracture; and a release of the daughter operated to extinguish appellee’s liability for any damage for which the daughter could have been made to respond.

The case of Corbett v. Clarke, upon which both parties rely, is the Virginia case nearest on its facts to this, and appears to be the only authoritative detailed discussion of how Virginia law operates [552]*552in this situation. There, the plaintiff had had a tooth fixed by Dentist No. 1, had complained of negligence by that dentist, and had eventually given him a release as a part of a settlement of the claim. The plaintiff had gone to Dentist No. 2 (Dr. Clarke, the defendant), apparently for two purposes, one, to have the negligent work done by Dentist No. 1 corrected, and, two, to have some work done on an entirely different tooth. In doing this latter work, plaintiff alleged that Dr. Clarke, after operating upon the gum, had left in the incision some cotton or other foreign substance.

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Della Fletcher v. Frank M. Hand
358 F.2d 549 (D.C. Circuit, 1966)

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358 F.2d 549, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/della-fletcher-v-frank-m-hand-cadc-1966.