Benjamin v. Holyoke St. R. Co.

• Court: United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts
• Writing for the Court: ALLEN, J.
• Citation: 35 N.E. 95,160 Mass. 3
• Parties: BENJAMIN v. HOLYOKE ST. RY. CO.
• Decision Date: 20 October 1893

160 Mass. 3

35 N.E. 95

BENJAMIN
v.
HOLYOKE ST. RY. CO.

Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, Hampden.

October 20, 1893

[35 N.E. 95] The plaintiff claimed, and introduced evidence tending to show, that when she was thrown out of the wagon, to the ground, she struck on her face and stomach, and was dragged across the sidewalk. Her eye was cut. She had a bruise on back of her neck, in lower part of her bowels, across her limb, and also a bruise on her back. That she went home, and [35 N.E. 96] was confined to her bed some 12 days. That 10 or 12 days after she suffered a miscarriage, that she claimed was due to her accident, and that she suffered from uterine troubles from the same cause. In direct examination, and in examination in chief, her counsel asked a physician the following question: "If a woman was with child, and met with an accident, so that she was thrown over the footboard of a wagon by a runaway horse; thrown to the ground, on her stomach or side; went home, and soon after went to bed; and if she was confined to the bed for ten or twelve days, and if at the end of that time she suffered a miscarriage,--would the facts, if true, be an adequate cause for a miscarriage?" To this question the defendant objected, but the court ruled it competent. The witness answered that it would be considered an adequate cause for the miscarriage. The same witness was asked by plaintiff's counsel, against objections by defendant, the following questions, and gave the following answers: "Question. If a woman was with child, and was thrown over the dashboard by a runaway horse, and struck upon her stomach or her side,--that is, thrown over upon the ground,--would it be possible for the fetus to be killed? Answer. It would be possible. Q. In what way? A. It might be killed by direct violence of the blow, or by a separation of the placenta from the womb. The placenta is what carries the blood from the inside of the womb, from the mother's body to the child's body. In a sudden jar, that might be separated, so that the fetus would derive no more blood from the mother. It might possibly be such an injury to the womb itself as to produce a miscarriage from that injury. Q. If the child was killed by this fall of the mother we have described, from a team to the ground, and a miscarriage took place ten or twelve days after, would the body of the fetus be decomposed, necessarily? A. No, not necessarily." The same witness was asked by plaintiff's counsel, in direct examination and in chief, the following question: "Is the presence...