Bourgeois v. Dade County
| Decision Date | 14 November 1956 |
| Parties | Steve BOURGEOIS, as Administrator of the Estate of Nicholas Geoffrey Bourgeois, Appellant, v. DADE COUNTY, Florida, a Political Subdivision of the State of Florida, Appellee. |
| Court | Florida Supreme Court |
Kelner & Lewis, Miami Beach, for appellant.
F. E. Gotthardt of Morehead, Forrest, Gotthardt & Orr, Miami, for appellee.
Affirmed on authority of the decisions in Horowitz v. Schwartz, Fla.1954, 74 So.2d 801; Foster v. Thornton, 113 Fla. 600, 152 So. 667. See also Bowles v. Bourdon, 148 Tex. 1, 219 S.W.2d 779, 13 A.L.R.2d 1, Annotation, page 28.
On Rehearing Granted
Appellant Steve Bourgeois, as administrator, seeks reversal of a final judgment entered pursuant to a directed verdict in favor of appellee Dade County at the close of the plaintiff's case in an action for damages for alleged negligence in the care and treatment of appellant's decedent while a patient in the emergency ward of the County Hospital.
The determining question is whether there was a total absence of evidence to establish a causal relationship between the alleged negligence and the ultimate death of appellant's decedent or the hastening of his death so as to justify the directing of a verdict in favor of the appellee.
By our original judgment entered November 14, 1956, we were inclined to the view that the trial judge was correct in concluding that the evidence of causal relationship was too speculative to support jury consideration of the matter. We then affirmed his judgment without opinion.
We subsequently granted rehearing. On careful consideration of the entire record on rehearing we are led to the conclusion that the evidence was sufficient to justify submission of the cause to the jury.
About 1:50 a. m. September 6, 1954 Nicholas Geoffrey Bourgeois, dressed only in trunks, was found stretched out on the lawn in front of the Dean Hotel in a condition which a Miami police officer described as 'unconscious.' The police called an ambulance and Bourgeois was taken to the Jackson Memorial Hospital on a stretcher. The ambulance driver testified that the man was unconscious and that when delivered to the hospital he reported to the admitting nurse that Bourgeois 'was out.' The police officer detected a 'slight odor' of alcohol. The ambulance driver noticed none at all.
Bourgeois was taken into the hospital emergency room. The attending intern testified that the man's chest sounds and pulse were normal and although incoherent he was not unconscious. The intern stated that the man's breath literally reeked with alcohol. He stated that someone told him that the man had been 'found on the street' but he did not undertake to obtain any history of the situation at all. No X-rays were made. After what appears to have been a relatively superficial clinical examination, the intern released the man to a nurse to return him to the hospital police room for delivery to the police as drunk.
The police called for Bourgeois at the hospital sometime after 3:00 a. m., carried him out to a patrol car and conveyed him to the municipal jail. The police officer testified that the man slumped over on the seat of the automobile as if his 'back were broken.' When placed on the elevator to carry him up to the jail, the man couldn't stand up but slumped down on the floor. He was then put into a cell on a metal cot and left to himself. He was found dead in his cell at 7:00 a. m. Death was caused by air and hemorrhaging in the thoracic cavity resulting from the piercing of the cavity by broken ribs.
Alleging negligence in the diagnosis and treatment of the decedent and the failure treatment of the decedent and the failure to use reasonable care and skill in such diagnosis and treatment, appellant brought this action for damages suffered by decedent's estate as a result of his death. Being of the view that the evidence of the causal connection between the alleged negligence and the ultimate death was too speculative to justify consideration by a jury, the trial judge directed a verdict for the appellee. Judgment was entered on the verdict and reversal of this judgment is now sought.
The appellant contends that when examined in the light most favorable to the plaintiff below the evidence was adequate to take the case to the jury.
It is the position of the appellee that the only evidence of causal relationship was so speculative and indefinite that it could not have supported a verdict for the appellant, plaintiff below.
It is a rule well established that a party requesting a directed verdict admits both the facts in evidence and also every conclusion favorable to the adverse party which a jury might fairly and reasonably infer from the evidence. Under our system of trial by jury a case should not be withdrawn from the jury's consideration unless as a matter of law no proper view of the evidence could possibly sustain the position of the party against whom the verdict is directed.
Admittedly the science of medicine...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Graham v. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.
...unless as a matter of law no proper view of the evidence could possibly sustain" an alternative determination. Bourgeois v. Dade Cty., 99 So.2d 575, 577 (Fla. Div. A 1956).Here, the conduct elements of the class members' causes of action presented factual issues. The Phase I jury did not in......
-
Bogorff By and Through Bogorff v. Koch
...of Adam's treating physician twenty-twenty foresight. "Admittedly the science of medicine is not an exact science." Bourgeois v. Dade County, 99 So.2d 575, 577 (Fla.1956). At best, the evidence in this case suggests only that in Dr. Koch's medical judgment methotrexate could be rejected as ......
-
Nesbitt v. Community Health of South Dade, Inc., 83-2751
...himself) regarding when the medication would be fully effective and a release appropriate. As the court stated in Bourgeois v. Dade County, 99 So.2d 575 (Fla.1957), [p]hysicians are not to be held liable for honest errors of judgment. They are allowed a wide range in the exercise of their j......
-
Chandler v. Hospital Authority of City of Huntsville
...some aid and releasing an injured party, thus erroneously giving him reason to believe the emergency had passed. See Bourgeois v. Dade County (Fla.1957), 99 So.2d 575; Reeves v. North Broward Hospital District (Fla.App., 1966), 191 So.2d 307. Other courts have more directly found a duty to ......