Smith v. Simpson
| Decision Date | 03 May 1926 |
| Docket Number | No. 15593.,15593. |
| Citation | 288 S.W. 69 |
| Parties | SMITH v. SIMPSON et al. |
| Court | Missouri Court of Appeals |
Appeal from Circuit Court, Jackson County; Willard P. Hall, Judge.
Action by Bennett Smith against James Y. Simpson and another, doing business as the Simpson-Major Sanitarium. Judgment for plaintiff, motion for new trial overruled and defendants appeal. Affirmed.
Langworthy, Spencer & Terrell, of Kansas City, for appellants.
Harry G. Kyle, of Kansas City, and T. N. Haynes, of Harrisonville, for respondent.
This is an action in damages for the death of plaintiff's wife, caused by the alleged negligence of defendants and their servants. Defendants, who are physicians, are copartners, owning and conducting a private sanitarium for gain in Kansas City, Mo., employing nurses and `other servants for the treatment and care of patients accepted and received by defendants for treatment for nervous, mental and other kindred ailments. Plaintiff is a farmer, and, with his wife and their small son, lived on a farm near Pleasant Hill, Cass county, Mo.
The record shows that for several months prior to June, 1923, plaintiff's wife had been suffering from some nervous or mental disorders, and in May, 1923, she underwent a surgical operation at the Christian Church Hospital in Kansas City, Mo. About the middle of June she still was suffering from such disorders, and was taken by her husband to defendants' sanitarium, where an interview took place with defendant Dr. Major relative to placing plaintiff's wife in the sanitarium. There were present on this occasion, besides plaintiff and his wife and Dr. Major, plaintiff's father-in-law, Robert Jackson, the young son of plaintiff and his wife, Robert L. Smith, and Dr. S. G. Burnett, a physician who had been consulted by plaintiff' and his wife.
Testimony on behalf of plaintiff tends to show that Dr. Major there asked plaintiff's wife if she had ever had any desire to take her own life, to which she replied:
It is shown in plaintiff's evidence that Dr. Major, in conversation with plaintiff, not in the presence of the latter's wife, but in the presence of the said Robert Jackson, told plaintiff that, as his wife contemplated suicide, he would not take her under any circumstances as a patient in the sanitarium, unless plaintiff would consent that she be locked up where it would be impossible for her to take her own life; that Dr. Major then told plaintiff that a nurse would watch his wife at all times; that the charges would be $150 per month in advance, and that it would take from two to three months to effect a cure; that Dr. Major showed plaintiff the room in which his wife would be placed, which was on the second floor, in what was known and designated as the mental ward, having barred windows.
Dr. Major, during the preliminary conversation, told plaintiff of his experience in diagnosing and treating mental diseases, and of his proficiency In this line; that plaintiff's wife would be cured by the treatment and care which would be given her in the sanitarium. Plaintiff thereupon placed his wife in the care of defendants, and she was ?out in the mental ward of the institution.
The testimony of Dr. Major as to what occurred at the first interview with plaintiff, preliminary to the acceptance of plaintiff's wife as a patient, was somewhat contradictory of that in behalf of plaintiff. The doctor testified that he made an examination of plaintiff's wife on that occasion in the presence of Dr. Burnett; that he did not ask Mrs. Smith if she had ever contemplated taking her own life; that information as to suicidal tendencies ordinarily is obtained from indirect questioning, and not by asking the patient the direct question; that Mrs. Smith, in response to his indirect questions, always stated she Wanted to get well; that she never mentioned her thought to commit suicide while at the Christian Church Hospital; that plaintiff was told that Mrs. Smith would be placed in the mental ward until a more thorough examination could be made; that on the following day a more thorough examination was made, and the patient transferred to the ward used for nervous patients; that defendants were convinced she was not suffering from mental trouble.
Plaintiff, in company with his son Robert, went to the sanitarium to see his wife every Sunday, and on each occasion, according to his testimony, was told she was improving. In August, 1923, after Mrs. Smith had been in the sanitarium for two months, plaintiff, with the consent of Dr. Simpson, who was in charge during the temporary absence of Dr. Major, took his wife to their home for a week; Dr. Simpson stating that the visit would do her no harm, but that she would not want to return to the sanitarium. While plaintiff's wife was at home, she grabbed a bottle of verinal tablets and said she would take them all, but was prevented from so doing by plaintiff and their son. Upon Mrs. Smith's return to the sanitarium at the end of her week's visit, Dr. Simpson, who was still in charge, was told of the incident of the tablets, and stated that by reason thereof he would have to put her back in the mental ward. Plaintiff paid defendants for another month's care for his wife, and she was again placed in the mental ward, where she remained until the 12th day of September, 1923, on which date she committed suicide by hanging herself from an elbow of a steam pipe, by the use of bed sheets.
It is in evidence that Mrs. Smith was afflicted with nervous and mental troubles, characterized by Dr. Harold Jerrard, her family physician and a general practitioner, as melancholia. She was excessively nervous and low-spirited most of the time. It is also in evidence that, while Mrs. Smith was in defendants' sanitarium, she was very nervous most of the time, depressed, low-spirited, crying, worrying, and complaining of pains in her head, so that it was necessary to administer opiates to her daily. About 11 o'clock p. m., on September 11, Mrs. Smith was worrying about her contemplated return to her home. This fact is testified to by defendants' witness, Mrs. Pearson, an employee of the sanitarium, who described "the last conversation any one had with Mrs. Smith, so far as shown by the record.
As stated above, Mrs. Smith was first placed in the mental ward, which was under lock and key and had barred windows. She was changed to the nervous ward, where she was kept for a few days, when she was put back in the mental ward, at her own request, as shown by defendants' testimony, and was placed in room No. 21, being the south room on the east side of the hall, with a door opening into the hall on the west. In the northeast corner of this room was a radiator, with two pipes extending from the floor to the ceiling. One of these pipes had in it an elbow from 12 to 15 inches in length, near the ceiling, the radiator being adjacent to and just south of said pipes. There was a bed in the room, the head of which was toward the east, so located that it extended partly over the front of the radiator; the elbow in the pipe was almost directly over the radiator, and in such proximity to it that one stepping upon the radiator could readily reach the elbow. The ceiling of the room was about 9 feet in height, which would place the said elbow less than 9 feet from the floor; the radiator was 3½ to 4 feet in height.
There were seven rooms composing the mental ward, three being on the west and four on the east of a separating hallway. Each room opened into the hallway by means of a door, and at the south end of the hallway was a bath and toilet room. The nurse, or attendant, maintained her desk and chair on "the east side of the hallway and within 18 inches of the door leading to room 21, which was the most southerly of the four rooms on the east side of the hall.
On the night of September 11-12, the door to room 21 was open all night. The nurse on duty was Mrs. Pearson, mentioned above, who was a witness for defendants, and whose name at the time of the suicide was Mrs. H. A. Major. This witness testified that she was sitting in the chair by her desk all night, save when she was attending the calls of patients in that ward; that she saw Mrs. Smith in her room at 11 p. m. on the 11th, and at 2:30 and 4:30 a. m. on the 12th, but thereafter did not look into Mrs. Smith's room until 6:15 a. m. when she went to call her to arise and dress, and found her hanging from the elbow of the pipe above mentioned, her life extinct. Her body was cold, but not rigid. The witness stated that from her position at the desk where she sat, she could have heard any movement made by Mrs. Smith in getting out of bed; that Mrs. Smith had climbed to the top of the radiator, tied one end of a bed sheet about the elbow and pipe, with the other end looped around her neck, and had stepped off the radiator, thereby hanging herself. Witness, with two other nurses, removed the body.
Before discovering that Mrs. Smith had committed suicide, Mrs. Pearson (Major) had made up her report for the night of September 11-12, as shown by the report, which is one of defendants' exhibits in evidence, not shown in the record, but is among the files. Later the witness wrote on the back of the report card the following:
Plaintiff insists that the notation just quoted was written under the instruction, or at the dictation, of Dr. Major. However, defendants declare plaintiff's...
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