Quinn v. Rosenberg

399 S.W.2d 433, 1966 Mo. App. LEXIS 735
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedJanuary 18, 1966
DocketNo. 31548
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 399 S.W.2d 433 (Quinn v. Rosenberg) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Quinn v. Rosenberg, 399 S.W.2d 433, 1966 Mo. App. LEXIS 735 (Mo. Ct. App. 1966).

Opinion

RUDDY, Presiding Judge.

This action by plaintiff against defendant is in two counts. Count 1 alleges an assault and battery and Count 2 alleges a false arrest. A jury trial resulted in a verdict for the plaintiff on Count 1 in the amount of $500.00 actual and $1000.00 punitive damages and on Count 2 in the amount of $10,000 actual and $500 punitive damages. Defendant appeals asserting error in failing to sustain his motion for a directed verdict, error in three instructions and further contends that the amount of the verdict is excessive.

In determining whether the trial court erred in failing to sustain the defendant’s motion for a directed verdict on both counts of the petition we will state the facts and circumstances favorable to plaintiff as shown by the evidence and give to plaintiff the benefit of all reasonable inferences which may be fairly drawn therefrom. Price v. Nicholson, Mo., 340 S.W.2d 1, 4, 5; Johnson v. Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad Company, Mo., 334 S.W.2d 41, 42.

Plaintiff, licensed to practice law in 1939, is married to William Quinn, also a lawyer. At the time of her testimony she was associated with her husband in the practice of the law under the firm name of Quinn and Quinn. Plaintiff did not engage in the active practice of the law until about two years prior to her testimony. However, prior to the two years she did help her husband in his law office, doing research and bookkeeping.

On August 20, 1958, she was in an automobile accident in Garden City, Kansas, in which accident she sustained injuries to her neck, shoulder and arms and the upper part of her body. Most of the injuries she sustained were to her right side. She also sustained a laceration of the head. She was hospitalized in Kansas and subsequently returned to St. Louis where she entered the Firmin Desloge Hospital for treatment of her injuries. Dr. William Stevens was the attending physician. He prescribed a cervical collar and a traction outfit for her to use in her home. On February 19, 1959, the time of the occurrence that forms the basis of this lawsuit, she was still taking traction treatments at her home and wore the cervical collar, except that on some occasions she did not wear it because it proved embarrassing and she would take it off. In 1940 her neck was injured in an accident in which the car in which she was riding was struck in the rear by another car. In addition to wearing the cervical collar and using the traction outfit, Dr. Stevens was also giving her some diathermy treatments in his office and she had a diathermy machine at home, which she used. Prior to the arrest involved in this suit, she was never arrested for any violation of the law.

Prior to February 19, 1959, plaintiff’s husband was engaged to represent Aletha Joyce Davis in the prosecution of a Workmen’s Compensation claim for an injury to the left knee, which Mrs. Davis claims she had sustained in May 1956 during her work with the Bemis Brothers Bag Company. Her claim for compensation was disputed by the employer and insurer. Mrs. Davis had been in the Park Lane Hospital under the care of defendant, Dr. Rosenberg, in July 1956 for a female condition, at which time she also complained of pain and ache in the left knee and leg. Because of the medical question involved in the case, plaintiff’s husband asked plaintiff to go to the hospital and to the office of Dr. Henry Rosenberg to get copies of the record of medical service and treatment furnished to Mrs. Davis. Prior to going to the hospital and to the office of the defendant, plaintiff secured, from the Division of Workmen’s Compensation, authorizations to inspect the records of the Park Lane [436]*436Hospital and the records of defendant, Dr. Rosenberg. These authorizations were issued by the Division of Workmen’s Compensation under the provisions of § 287.140 (sub-divisions 5 and 6) RSMo 1959, V.A.M.S., which provide:

“5. The testimony of any physician who treated the employee shall be admissible in evidence in any proceedings for compensation under this chapter, subject to all of the provisions of section 287.210.
“6. Every hospital or other person furnishing the employee with medical aid shall permit its record to be copied by and shall furnish full information to the commission, the employer, the employee or his dependents and any other party to any proceedings for compensation under this chapter, and certified copies of such records shall be admissible in evidence in any such proceedings.”

On February 19, 1959, plaintiff went to the Park Lane Hospital and arrived there about 12 noon. She had taken a portable photostat machine with her. She presented her authorization to Mary Knoplauch, the medical record librarian, and asked to see the medical records of Mrs. Davis. Mrs. Knoplauch refused permission to see the records but made a telephone call to defendant, Dr. Rosenberg, because it was the policy of the hospital not to show the hospital records to anyone until they had procured the patient’s permission and the doctor’s permission. The defendant told Mary Knoplauch to have the plaintiff come to his office and that he would talk to her there. Mary Knoplauch admitted that plaintiff presented an authorization from the Division of Workmen’s Compensation but that she did not have the patient’s signature, nor the doctor’s signature to inspect the records. Immediately thereafter, plaintiff went to the office of defendant at 1467 North Union Boulevard. The office of the doctor is in a residence converted to office use and the doctor occupies the entire residence. The office has a waiting room, an archway into the nurse’s or receptionist’s office and another archway leading into a corridor. This corridor leads to a number of rooms used by the defendant in his treatment of patients.

The defendant employed Ozella Green who served in a number of capacities. She was the receptionist and it was her duty to see that each patient would sign a register when he or She arrived at the defendant’s office. She took care of the defendant’s files, kept his books, sterilized his instruments and prepared the patients for the defendant’s treatment and services. When the defendant was ready for the patient she would take the patient to a treatment room.

Plaintiff arrived at defendant’s office about 12:30 P.M. After entering the waiting room she proceeded to the desk in the nurse’s office and presented both authorizations to the nurse and told the nurse that defendant knew that she was coming and asked the nurse to tell the defendant that she was there. There were several people in the waiting room and the nurse told plaintiff to be seated in the waiting room, that the doctor was busy. Thereafter, the nurse took the authorizations into the back quarters of the building. About an hour later, and while plaintiff waited in the waiting room, she saw defendant come into the nurse’s room and look at the authorizations to inspect the medical records, which were lying on the nurse’s desk. Defendant said something to the nurse and the nurse then looked at plaintiff and thereafter the doctor went back into the rear quarters of his office. Later, the defendant again came out to the nurse’s desk at which time Mrs. Quinn nodded a recognition to him but the doctor said nothing to her. He went back into the rear portion of his office again. About 2:30 P.M.

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Bluebook (online)
399 S.W.2d 433, 1966 Mo. App. LEXIS 735, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/quinn-v-rosenberg-moctapp-1966.