St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway Co. v. Coke

175 S.W. 1177, 118 Ark. 49, 1915 Ark. LEXIS 290
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedApril 5, 1915
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 175 S.W. 1177 (St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway Co. v. Coke) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway Co. v. Coke, 175 S.W. 1177, 118 Ark. 49, 1915 Ark. LEXIS 290 (Ark. 1915).

Opinion

Wood, J.,

(after stating the facts). (1) Appellee’s complaint contains the following (allegations as to his injuries : That “on being thrown to the floor as aforesaid, plaintiff sustained serious and painful injuries to his right hip, legs, arms, head, body, spine, -spinal cord and dislocation of one of his vertebra, resulting in a curvature, and as a consequence, the nerves, muscles and tissues in the region of such dislocation are permanently injured.” That “plaintiff also sustained severe and painful injuries to hi-s' kidneys, bladder and entire nervous system, and said injuries are permanent and lasting.” That “during all of this time, plaintiff has suffered great and excruciating pain and will continue to do so throughout his life. ’ ’ Appellee testified that by reason of his injuries he had lost control of his bowels and bladder and was rendered impotent.

Doctor L. L. Marshall, a witness for appellee, testified that he was a physician ¡and surgeon, and had treated the appellee for the injuries he sustained since about the 2d or 3d of June, 1914. He stated that, by reason of the displacement of the nerves caused by the dislocation of one of the vertebra, appellee had lost control of his bladder and bowels and genital organs. He described minutely the human vertebrae, together with the. ligaments and muscles which hold them together, and the effect that the tearing of these muscles and the nerve pressure in a certain region of the back, which he pointed out, would have on the organs lying in the pelvic region, or lower cavity of the body. After minutely describing the anatomy of the human back, his testimony proceeded as follows :

“It would .seem from his general condition that the sacral plexus of nerves is involved directly in front of this backbone or pudio nerve, a great and small sciatic nerve and its branches which control the lower limbs, the perineal nerves. , In each one of these backbones, there is .a hole on each .side where the nerves from the cord come through, and where they come through in this' fifth lumbar vertebra and from the dorsal vertebrae, they go to form a plexus — the nerves coming together form a net-work. Off this network of nerves, come the different nerves that go down to the legs and to the genital organs and into the rectum, and these nerves that come off this plexus subdivide and branch out like the branches of the trees, some governing some certain muscles and others other muscles.”

The cross-examination proceeded as f ollows:

Q. Do the nerves affecting the different parts of the body all come from the same vertebrae ?

A. Oh, no.

Q. Which vertebrae, for instance, would those nerves come from that affect the rectum or bowel movement!

A. This plexus is formed bv the nerves that come out of the dorsal vertebra.

Q. Which one is the dorsal vertebrae ?

A. There are seven cervical and twelve dorsal. The first dorsal would he the eighth vertebra, and they give out nerves which join all the way down — and five of the lumbar vertebra which follow it — and nerves come through each of 'the lumbar vertebra, and these nerves come in together to form a plexus where the nerve fibres all join to form this plexus, and off this plexus come the other nerves.

Q. I want to find from which of the vertebra this nerve eminates that affects the bowel movement?

A. Well, it comes from this plexus of nerves.

At this point, the court remarked: “We are not interested in that matter; it is not material to this case. Let’s stop the discussion of that point.”

The appellant duly excepted to the ruling of the court and its first ground of the motion for a new trial is as follows:

■ “That the court erred in holding of its own motion upon cross-examination of the plaintiff’s witness, Dr. L. L. Marshall, that testimony relative to the emanation of the nerve that affects the bowel movement was immaterial and irrelevant to this case, and in refusing to permit defendant to further interrogate the witness on this point.”

The court did not err in refusing to allow further cross-examination of Doctor Marshall. The last question asked the witness on cross-examination showed that the purpose was to ascertain “from which of the vertebra this nerve emanates that affects the bowel movement,” but the appellant had already ascertained this fact by other questions propounded to the witness. The witness had already been asked which vertebrae the nerves came from that effected the bowel movement, and had answered that they came “out of the dorsal vertebrae.” The witness, with great minuteness and with technical terminology, had described and pointed out the various ligaments, muscles, bones and nerves of the human back, and had pointed out and explained in'detail the region of the back where appellee was injured. The expressions used in his testimony show that he was demonstrating before the jury by pointing out on appellee’s 'back, or the ■back of some one used for the purpose of the demonstration, the particular vertebra or backbone that was dislocated. He showed that this was the 21st vertebra from the top, or what was technically known as the second lumbar vertebra or system of bones constituting the spinal column. He explained that when the ligaments and muscles binding the joints of the backbone together were turned loose, allowing these joints to slip, the entire nervous system of the pelvis, or cavity where the intestines lie, would be affected, and that such was the condition of appellee as the result of the injury he received. The testimony of other physicians on behalf of appellee corroborated the testimony of Doctor Marshall as to the particular vertebra or backbone that was dislocated, andas to the effect such dislocation had upon the nerves controlling the organs in the pelvis. A more extended examination of the witness on cross-examination was not called for, and it was within the discretion of the court to stop the examination at that point. The doctors used such terms as “this vertebra,” “these backbones,” “nerve pressure in this region of the back,” “these nerves-,” etc., showing that they were demonstrating before the jury the particular portions of the body of appellee that were affected by his injury; .and to have continued further interrogatories along this line on the cross-examination would have been useless, -and could have had no other effect than to confuse and mislead the jury by a superabundance of scientific and professional terms, of which the ordinary juror has no knowledge. The only purpose that appellant could have had ift extending the investigation along this liné would have been to show that the appellee’s witnesses were mistaken in their conclusions as to the effect that would be produced by a -dislocation of what they designated as ‘ ‘ the second lumbar vertebra, ’ ’ or mistaken -as to such vertebra being dislocated. The appellant introduced its expert witness, Doctor .Smith, who had examined the appellee when he was brought to the hospital on the second day after lie received his injury, and who described, with the same technical terminology, the nature and character of his injuries, and the results thereof as he ascertained them.

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Bluebook (online)
175 S.W. 1177, 118 Ark. 49, 1915 Ark. LEXIS 290, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/st-louis-iron-mountain-southern-railway-co-v-coke-ark-1915.