Weber v. Third Avenue Railway Co.

42 N.Y.S. 789
CourtAppellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
DecidedDecember 22, 1896
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 42 N.Y.S. 789 (Weber v. Third Avenue Railway Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Weber v. Third Avenue Railway Co., 42 N.Y.S. 789 (N.Y. Ct. App. 1896).

Opinions

RUMSEY, J.

Frederick Weber, the plaintiff’s intestate, was, as it is "said, and as the jury has found, struck by one of the cars of the defendant company on the 9th of October, 1894, and received injuries-of considerable severity. He was wounded somewhat about the head, but the most severe injury was a blow upon the knee, which never, as it seems, was cured. After the receipt of these injuries, and in the month of June, 1895, Frederick Weber died, and the plaintiff, as his administratrix, brought this action to recover damages for his death, which, she charges, was the result of the injuries he received by the collision with the car in October, 1894. The theory of the plaintiff’s case is that the injury to the knee caused a tubercular condition of that part of the limb, which, gradually extending to the lung, by the action of natural causes, produced the consumption which caused his death, as a direct result of the injuries which he received. The defendant denied that the injury to the knee caused the consumption, and this was the disputed question of fact presented upon the trial, and decided by the jury. After the verdict had been rendered, a motion for a new trial was made upon the ground, among others, that the verdict was contrary to the weight -of the evidence, and upon a denial of that motion, and the entry of judgment on the verdict, this appeal was -taken.

The appellant renews here the point it made before the judge at the trial, that -the evidence was not sufficient to. warrant a verdict in favor of the plaintiff, because it did not justify the jury in concluding that the consumption which it is conceded was the immediate cause of the death of Frederick Weber was produced by the injury to the knee received by him at the time of his hurt. Before the plaintiff can recover for the death of this man, she must prove that the injuries he received were the proximate cause of the death. That is to be determined as a question of fact by the evidence given upon the case. The question always is, was there an unbroken connection between the wrongful act and the injury,—a continuous operation? Did the facts constitute a continuous succession of events so linked together as to make' a natural whole, or was there some new and independent cause intervening between the wrong and the injury? Railway Co., v. Kellogg, 94 U. 8. 469. It is not necessary for the plaintiff, who-claims that the injury was the proximate cause of the consumption of which this man died, to show that it was the only cause. It is' sufficient if she establishes that the injury set in motion other causes which producéd the disease and the death, but which, in the absence of this injury, would not have produced it. Pollett v. Long, 56 N. Y. 200. But this proof on the part of the plaintiff must be made by evidence which establishes the fact, and unless the evidence is sufficient to show the connection between the immediate cause of the death and the injury received the plaintiff cannot recover. The claim here was that the injury to the knee caused a tubercular condition of the limb, and that this tubercular condition gradually, by the operation of natural causes, extended to the lung of Weber, and produced the consumption which caused his death. It appeared from the testimony that the wound upon the knee was a bruise, and that there was-no cut or laceration sufficient to permit the examination of the joint [791]*791itself. Whatever breaking of the skin there was, was healed shortly after the injury, if indeed, there was any breaking of the skin at all; so that the fact that there was a tubercular condition of the knee could, in the nature of things, only be established by the performance of an operation upon the knee which would permit an examination of the injured joint, or by the inferences which physicians might draw from what they saw upon the outside. It is in proof, and not disputed, that the knee was swollen and the joint was stiff. Whether that stiffening of the swollen joint was accompanied with a tubercular condition of the joint was the question which lay at the bottom of this inquiry, because if there was no tubercular condition of the joint then there was no foundation for saying that there was tuberculosis at the knee which extended to and fastened upon the lung and produced the consumption." It was sought to establish a tubercular condition of the knee joint by the testimony of physicians who wen-sworn as experts in the case and testified to their opinions upon that subject. Of course the opinion of expert witnesses upon a question as to which opinions may properly be given is competent evidence, and it is to be considered in deciding the question of fact, but whether it will be received as sufficient proof depends upon other considerations than those to be regarded where the proof presented is direct testimony to a fact by a witness who has personal knowledge of it. In the latter case the testimony of the witness, if he is unimpeached and the fact is credible in itself, must be considered, and unless tin-witness is contradicted, or is so interested in the event of tire action that his testimony may properly be regarded with suspicion, his statement, under oath, of the fact must be taken as sufficient proof of it. But in the case of an expert witness, swearing as to what must necessarily be a matter of opinion, his testimony is not necessarily and finally to be accepted as establishing the fact. The testimony is to be considered in view of the general knowledge of the witness upon the subject as to which he is sworn, his knowledge of the particular case, his opportunity for examination as to the facts upon which he bases his opinion, and the sufficiency of the reasons which he gives for the opinion he has; and, if it should appear that his opinion is formed without the aid of facts necessary to enable him to come to a conclusion,. that opinion may be disregarded, however confidently it. is testified to by the witness.

In this case three physicians were sworn on the behalf of the plaintiff. One was Dr. Charles W. Miller, who saw Weber on the day of the accident, and who attended him from the 9th to the 15th of October, and describes generally his condition during that time. He found at that time acute synovitis of the right knee, with swelling and contusion of the muscles and tissues "of the right leg. .He ■ says that it was a serious inflammation of the knee joint; that the right knee was swollen from two or three inches above the knee almost down to the ankle. He says that the knee was stiff. He left the patient on the 15th of October, by which time the swelling-had gone down somewhat, and the condition of the knee had improved, but it was still stiff, and there was still some inflammation. Dr. Miller never saw Weber after the 15th of October, and his tes[792]*792timony does not aid us in an examination of the main question here, except so far as it shows that the disease of the knee immediately followed the hurt which Weber received. The physician who followed Dr. Miller in attendance upon Weber, and whose testimony is principally relied upon by the plaintiff, was Dr. Hoffman, who attended Weber from the middle of October, 1894, to. the middle of March, 1895. He testifies to the condition of the knee; that Weber gradually went into a decline; that there developed a consolidation of the right side of the lung, which became more and more pronounced, until it culminated in a rapid consumption from which Weber died in the early part of June, 1895. He describes the condition of the knee, so far as it could be ascertained from an outside examination; and the jury might have found from his examination that the knee was greatly swollen, that it was stiff, and that there was in the knee joint an accumulation of pus.

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Bluebook (online)
42 N.Y.S. 789, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/weber-v-third-avenue-railway-co-nyappdiv-1896.