Dennis v. Prisock
| Decision Date | 13 December 1965 |
| Docket Number | No. 43709,43709 |
| Citation | 254 Miss. 574,181 So.2d 125 |
| Parties | Frank L. DENNIS, d/b/a Dennis Brothers Contractors, and Jimmy Rhea v. Kay W. PRISOCK. |
| Court | Mississippi Supreme Court |
Satterfield, Shell, Williams & Buford, Cary E. Bufkin, Jackson, Charles H. McCraine, Jr., Houston, Miss., for appellant.
Armis E. Hawkins, James S. Gore, Houston, Miss., for appellee.
This tort action for personal injuries was brought by Mrs. Kay W. Prisock (appellee) in the Circuit Court of Chickasaw County against Frank L. Dennis, doing business as Dennis Brothers Contractors, and Jimmy Rhea (appellants). The jury returned a verdict of $30,000.00 for Mrs. Prisock. We reverse and remand for a new trial. The judgment is against the great weight of the evidence, because it failed to trace the injuries to her back with requisite certainty to an efficient cause for which defendants are responsible. The trial court erred in allowing plaintiff to invoke the physician-patient privilege, since she effectively waived it; and in admitting doctor, hospital, nurse, and other medical bills, where they were not shown to be reasonable and necessary, and causally related to the defendants' negligent acts.
Between March 19, 1959 and January 31, 1962, Mrs. Prisock was involved in eight accidents. That on which this suit was based was the second in sequence. This action was filed on January 29, 1962, and was tried in October 1964.
The accident for which this suit was brought occurred on July 6, 1959. According to plaintiff's evidence, she was driving north in her father's automobile 80 to 100 feet behind a truck of Dennis Brothers Contractors, on which was located a water tank. The truck was being used to water fresh sod placed on the sides of a highway. The truck pulled right and stopped, Mrs. Prisock turned left to pass, but the truck shot back across the road at a 45 degree angle, striking the right front of her car with its right rear wheels. Her version was supported by testimony of a Dennis employee who said he saw the collision, and of her father, who told about an incriminating statement made to him later by Rhea, but denied by Rhea. On the other hand, defendants' version, according to Rhea, was that he stopped and waited to back the truck to a pond to get some water, when Mrs. Prisock ran into the rear of the vehicle. There is some dispute as to the extent of damage to the automobile, but the weight of the evidence indicates it was relatively slight. Repairs were made by plaintiff's father some time leter. Mrs. Prisock remained in Chickasaw County for a month assisting her husband in his campaign for state treasurer. Dr. John D. Dyer of Houston saw Mrs. Prisock the day after the collision, and diagnosed her trouble as a back strain.
The great weight of the evidence indicates that the contribution of the accident of July 6, 1959 to Mrs. Prisock's previous and subsequent back condition was relatively slight.
About four months before the above accident, on March 19, 1959, while Mrs. Prisock worked in Jackson at Mr. Prisock's office, she fell down a flight of stairs and suffered a large bruise over her lower back. Dr. Albert L. Gore ordered a back brace with metal or bone ribs, and she wore it. She recalled talking with Lee, a claim representative of the Jitney Jungle store, where the steps were located, relative to her claim for this fall, and telling him that she fell down the steps and hurt herself. She may have advised him that she hurt her back, since it was bruised. Lee said she stated she fell from the top to the bottom of the stairs about twenty steps; and that she injured her back and also her kidney, and Dr. Gore had told her to wear a back brace all of the time, except in bed.
On September 1, 1959, Mrs. Prisock was involved in a serious car wreck in Gulfport, when she was thrown from her car on the pavement, was hospitalized there three days, and was moved to a Jackson hospital where she remained seven days. She admitted she struck the pavement with her head and shoulders, since her left ear was almost torn off, and her face, neck, shoulders and back were injured, and her arms and legs were skinned. She could not recall how much she was paid by the owner of the other vehicle for that collision but would not deny that it was $11,870.
In the summer of 1960 Mrs. Prisock fell at her home. She said she had a sprained wrist, although she admitted that she blacked out, hurt her arm, and had a cast on it. She stated it was not uncommon for her to faint frequently. On September 10, 1960, Mrs. Prisock ran upon a street curb, hit a fire hydrant, and was taken to the hospital, where she remained for three days.
On April 24, 1961, Mrs. Prisock had another fall in the Jitney Jungle building, when her shoe heel went through the floor and she fell, following which she was hospitalized. She injured her lower extremities, twisted her ankle, and fell on her knees. As a result of the fall she suffered a miscarriage, surgery being performed.
On November 21, 1961, Mrs. Prisock fell and injured her left elbow. Dr. Dyer x-rayed it and treated her.
On January 31, 1962, Mrs. Prisock was driving north on North State Street in Jackson when another lady pulled her car into traffic and there was a collision with a substantial impact. It jolted Mrs. Prisock quite severely and threw her around against objects in the car. She was injured in the chest, shoulder, neck and back, and, being unable to get the local doctor she sought, she went to her parents' home in Chickasaw County and was treated by Dr. Dyer. She was hospitalized for thirty-nine days. Dr. Dyer gave her a myelogram, from which he diagnosed a ruptured lumbar disc. He then sent her to Jackson, where on March 13, 1962, Dr. Walter Neill performed disc surgery.
Dr. Dyer, plaintiff's witness, was the only doctor who testified. Over objection, he stated as his opinion that Mrs. Prisock sustained the disc injury to her back in the collision involving appellant's truck on July 6, 1959. Yet he had no knowledge of plaintiff's fall down a flight of stairs on March 19, 1959, and the surrounding facts. He did not know she fell in the summer of 1960, of the automobile collision of September 10, 1960, and of a fall on April 24, 1961, or of the injuries resulting from them. She told him about the September 1, 1959 accident, but he did not treat her for it, although he prescribed some sedatives over a period of time. His reason for concluding that the July 6, 1959 collision caused the ruptured disc was 'that the first time I saw this patient with a back injury was at that time.' He thought he was thus justified in presuming that was her original injury. However, he did not know that she was wearing a back brace after March 19, 1959, and it would change his opinion considerably...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Lovett v. E.L. Garner, Inc., 56782
...contract, but includes damages generally. See Hudson v. Farrish Gravel Co., 279 So.2d 630, 635-36 (Miss.1973); Dennis v. Prisock, 254 Miss. 574, 583, 181 So.2d 125, 128 (1965) on appeal after remand, 221 So.2d 706 (Miss.1969); Chevron Oil Co. v. Snellgrove, 253 Miss. 356, 367, 175 So.2d 471......
-
Haven v. Taylor
...testimony to establish that the charge was reasonable or that the entire bill was related to the injury claimed."); Dennis v. Prisock, 181 So. 2d 125, 127-28 (Miss. 1965) (noting that the court erred in admitting medical bills when the plaintiff did not show the services were necessary beca......
-
Piney Woods Country Life School v. Shell Oil Co.
...531 (1962), and "[s]ome minimum standards of proof as to the fact and extent of the loss will always be required." Dennis v. Prisock, 254 Miss. 574, 181 So.2d 125, 128 (1965). We also note that in Burnham v. Joseph and R & S Dev., Inc. v. Wilson, the court applied the less stringent standar......
-
Bay Springs Forest Products, Inc. v. Wade, 53790
...be established with reasonable certainty, see, e.g., S.H. Kress & Co. v. Sharp, 156 Miss. 693, 126 So. 650 (1930); Dennis v. Prisock, 254 Miss. 574, 181 So.2d 125 (1965). See also, Miss. Model Jury Instructions, Section 20.03. The jury here was properly instructed in this regard. The error ......