Oklahoma Gas & Electric Co. v. Priest

1936 OK 690, 62 P.2d 55, 178 Okla. 91, 1936 Okla. LEXIS 498
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedNovember 4, 1936
DocketNo. 25466.
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 1936 OK 690 (Oklahoma Gas & Electric Co. v. Priest) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Oklahoma Gas & Electric Co. v. Priest, 1936 OK 690, 62 P.2d 55, 178 Okla. 91, 1936 Okla. LEXIS 498 (Okla. 1936).

Opinion

OSBORN, V. C. J.

This action was instituted in the district court of Oklahoma county by W. J. Priest, hereinafter referred to as plaintiff, against the Oklahoma Gas & Electric Company, hereinafter referred to as defendant, wherein plaintiff sought to recover damages for personal injuries sustained by him as a result of alleged improper medical attention administered to him by a physician selected by defendant. Lester E. Johnson, foreman of the construction department of the defendant corporation, was named as a party defendant, but was not served with summons. The cause was tried to a jury and a verdict rendered in favor of plaintiff for $2,500. From a judgment thereon, defendant has appealed.

We quote a portion of paragraph 2 of plaintiff’s petition as follows:

“That on and prior to the 4th day of March, 1931, plaintiff was an employee of defendant Oklahoma Gas & Electric Company and that on the 4th day of March, 1931, defendant Lester E. Johnson was foreman of the construction department, for the fendant Oklahoma Gas & Electric Company, nany and subprincipal of the defendant Oklahoma Gas & Electric Company, under whom the plaintiff was employed, and while acting as said subprincipal and agent, went to the home of the plaintiff and maliciously assaulted and otherwise abused plaintiff, who is a man of advanced years, without any cause or provocation, and caused the plaintiff to be overcome by hysteria and fear, and that as a result, the plaintiff was prostrated and was placed in bed. That all of the acts of the said defendant Lester E. Johnson, as aforesaid, were committed while acting as subprincipal and agent of the defendant Oklahoma Gas & Electric Company, and in the course of his employment, to wit; That plaintiff had been acting as night watchman and after leaving his place of employment, had gone home to sleep and that the defendant Lester E. Johnson went to the home of the plaintiff for the purpose of admonishing and disciplining plaintiff, because of the manner in which plaintiff discharged his duties. That by reason of the acts of the defendant Lester E. Johnson, as aforesaid, it was necessary for medical treatment to be administered to the plaintiff. That while still acting as agent of the defendant, the Oklahoma Gas & Electric Company, the defendant Lester E. Johnson called, or caused, to he called, one Dr. Griggs, then residing at Harrah, Okla.. for the purpose of administering medical attention to the plaintiff and that the said Dr. Grifegs administered medical treatment to the plaintiff at the insistence and request of defendant or its agent.”

*92 Plaintiff further alleged that Dr. Griggs negligently, carelessly, and unskillfully used an unsterilized hypodermic «needle for the purpose of making an injection in plaintiff’s right arm, causing plaintiff’s arm to swell and become painful and ultimately resulting in permanent disability to said right arm; that the said Dr. Griggs was a negligent, careless, and incompetent physician and was in the habit of becoming intoxicated and remaining in such condition for several days and sometimes several weeks, which facts were known, or with the exercise of due diligence should have been known, by the defendant ; that the defendant company, or its agent, Johnson, did not exercise ordinary care and discretion in selecting and calling the said Dr. Griggs for the purpose of administering medical treatment to plaintiff, all of which was the proximate cause of plaintiff’s damage. Wc quote paragraph 3 of plaintiff’s petition as follows:

“That by reason of the negligence, carelessness, and lack of ordinary discretion and care on the part of the defendants and each of them, in selecting and providing a careless, negligent, unskilled and incompetent physician, to administer medical treatment to the plaintiff; that plaintiff has been damaged as follows, $1,000 loss of earning while totally disabled; $2,000 pain and suffering; $3,000 for permanent damage and disability to bis right arm and $500 doctor bills.’'

The petition was filed on January 4, 1933. On February 23, 1933, plaintiff secured permission of the trial court to amend the petition by interlineation. The above-quoted paragraph of the petition was amended to rend as follows:

“That by reason of the assault committed on the plaintiff by defendant Johnson as agent of the defendant Oklahoma Gas & Electric Company and on account of the negligence, carelessness, and lack of ordinary discretion and care on the part of the defendants and each of them, in selecting and providing a careless, negligent, unskilled, and incompetent physician, to administer medical treatment to the plaintiff: that plaintiff has been damaged as follows, $1,000 loss of earnings while totally disabled; $2,000 pain and suffering; $3,000 for permanent: damage and disability to his right arm and $500 doctor bills.”

Defendant thereafter filed a motion to strike from plaintiff’s amended petition the words “assault committed on the plaintiff by defendant Johnson ns the agent of defendant Oklahoma Gas & Electric Company and on account of the,” for the reason that plaintiff by said amendment had stated a new cause of action which was barred by the siatute of limitations. The motion to strike was sustained and the quoted language was stricken from the petition, so that said paragraph read as first quoted herein.

The answer of defendant consisted of a verified general denial.

It is urged on appeal that the trial court erred in giving instructions No. 10 and No. 11, which instructions are set out as follows:

“10. You are instructed that where one who suffered personal injury by reason of the negligence and fault of another, and such injured person exercises reasonable care in securing the services of a competent physician and surgeon, and liis injuries are thereafter aggravated and increased by the negligence, mistake, or lack of skill of such physician and surgeon, the law regards the negligence of the wrongdoer in causing the original injury as the proximate cause of the damage flowing from the subsequent negligent or unskillful treatment thereof, and holds the original wrongdoer liable therefor.
“However, if one who has suffered personal injuries by reason of the negligence of another, does not select his own physician or surgeon, but depends upon the one guilty of the original negligence to make such selection, the only duty required of him is to use reasonable care in the selection of the doctor, and he would not be held liable for any aggravated or increased injury by reason of the mistake or lack of skill of such physician and surgeon if he used ordinary prudence in the selection of such doctor.
“11. The court instructs you that the statutes of the state of Oklahoma define an assault a:i follows:
“ ‘An assault is any willful and unlawful attempt or offer with force or violence to do a corporal hurt to another.’

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Related

Oklahoma Ry. Co. v. Benson
1953 OK 102 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1953)

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Bluebook (online)
1936 OK 690, 62 P.2d 55, 178 Okla. 91, 1936 Okla. LEXIS 498, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/oklahoma-gas-electric-co-v-priest-okla-1936.