Health Law and Policy Commons^™

Medical Evaluation Of Mental Pain And Suffering, Carl E. Wasmuth

Cleveland State Law Review

What the attorney calls "mental pain and suffering" and emotional disturbance is identified by the physician as stress, a concept easier to appreciate than to define. The term was probably borrowed from the language of the engineer. Selye, the chief proponent of the term in medicine, employs it to describe the effects of external influences upon the human mind and body. The lawyer seeking damages for his client on the basis of mental and emotional disturbances (mental "pain and suffering") finds proof difficult. Until the sciences supply an accurate measure of mental and emotional disturbances due to stress, the legal …

Whiplash Injuries Of The Neck, Kenneth H. Abbott

Cleveland State Law Review

The nomenclature, mechanics, pathology and symptomatology of the minor injuries to the neck incurred in the socalled whiplash injury are reviewed. The common mechanism of this injury is shown to be hyperextension with recoil into hyperflexion, causing a sprain, of the soft tissues of the neck. In the more seriously injured, there may occur tearing and even avulsion of capsular and ligamentous structures of the neck. With injury to nerves and blood vessels, associated head and lower back injuries may also occur. Less commonly bony fractures of the neck vertebrae may be found. Attention is given to the delayed symptoms …

Constitutional Law - Freedom Of Religion - Fluoridation Of City Water, John M. Webb S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

In its proprietary capacity the City of Bend maintains and operates a water system with the exclusive right to supply water to its inhabitants. In February 1952 the mayor and city commissioners adopted an ordinance providing for the introduction of fluorine into the water supply to reduce dental caries in the teeth of young children. The plaintiff as a resident and taxpayer brought suit to enjoin such action. A demurrer to his complaint was sustained. On appeal, held, affirmed. A city, in the exercise of its police power, may enact reasonable regulations for the protection of the public health, …

Vitalization Of The Indiana Coroner System-Channeling Medico-Legal Duties To The Technically Trained

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Evidence - Physician - Patient Privilege - Applicability To Communication Between State Mental Hospital Psychiatrist And Criminal Internee, Norman A. Zilber S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Defendant was committed to a public mental hospital before standing trial on an indictment for robbery. One year later he was brought to trial after being discharged from the hospital as mentally competent. His only defense was insanity. The psychiatrist who had been appointed by the court to examine the defendant testified in support of this defense. The prosecution, in turn, introduced the testimony of the hospital psychiatrist who had attended the defendant during his internment. This psychiatrist was instructed by the trial court that communications between him and the defendant were not privileged. Accordingly, he testified that the defendant …

Hospitalization Of The Voluntary Mental Patient, Hugh A. Ross

Michigan Law Review

In 1949, the last year for which accurate statistics are available, 390,567 persons were admitted to mental hospitals in the United States. Total annual cost of mental illness, including loss of earnings, has been estimated to be over a billion dollars a year. Although the problems involved in admission of the mentally ill patient to a hospital are usually thought of in terms of formal involuntary commitment proceedings, there is an increasing awareness of the desirability of provision for voluntary procedures which would encourage prompt and effective medical care. Voluntary admission is not a form of commitment, although it may …

Evidence - Statutory Rape - Right Of Accused To Compulsory Blood Test Of Prosecutrix And Child, Edward Pastucha S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Defendant was convicted of statutory rape on the strength of complaining witness' uncorroborated testimony. Testimony of the prosecutrix was to the effect that she had had sexual relations with defendant only once, that she had become pregnant and had given birth to a child prior to the trial, and that she had had sexual relations with no other men. Defendant moved for an order requiring that blood tests be taken of the child and the mother. The motion was denied. On appeal, held, affirmed. Assuming power, absent statute, to compel the taking of blood-grouping tests, the trial court did …

Negligence-Duty Of Care-Liability Of State Mental Hospital For Acts Of A Dangerous Patient After Improper Discharge, Edgar A. Strause S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

One Jones, a mental incompetent, was erroneously released as "recovered" from a state hospital for the criminal insane, after having been transferred there because of his dangerous behavior at a state penal institution. Jones' frequent assaultive behavior at the hospital was not reported in his case history upon which the determination of his recovery was partially based, nor was any inquiry made into the motivation for such conduct. Crowded conditions and an inadequate psychiatric staff were responsible for the improper diagnosis of the patient's condition and his ultimate discharge. Four days after his release he killed four persons. The administratrix …

Medical Deduction: Scope And Purpose

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Negligence-Right To Recover For Pre-Natal Injurie, James S. Taylor S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

The plaintiff-infant by his guardian ad litem brought an action against the defendant alleging that while he was en ventre sa mere during the ninth month of his mother's pregnancy, he sustained, through the defendant's negligence, such serious injuries that he was born permanently maimed and disabled. The trial court dismissed the complaint for failure to state a cause of action. The appellate division affirmed. On appeal, held, reversed, two judges dissenting. A complaint alleging pre-natal injuries tortiously inflicted on a nine month foetus viable at the time and actually born later states a good cause of action. Woods …

Negligence-Immunity Of Charitable Institutions From Suit, W. Garrett Flickinger S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

A patient of defendant charitable hospital died as a result of the transfusion of an incorrect blood type and it was shown that one of defendant's employees had correctly typed the blood but negligently mislabeled it. The widower and children of the deceased brought an action in negligence for damages and the circuit court allowed recovery. On appeal, held, affirmed. The defendant hospital is liable in damages for the death of the deceased caused by the negligence of its employee notwithstanding the fact that defendant is a charitable institution and that the hospital authorities exercised due care and caution …

Virginia's Untested Statute Requiring Contribution Toward State Care Of Insane, Joel Wilcox West

William and Mary Review of Virginia Law

No abstract provided.

Legal Problems In The Organization And Operation Of Group Health Plans, Horace R. Hansen

Vanderbilt Law Review

This article is intended as a practical aid to the lawyer who is confronted with the legal problems involved in the organization and operation of a group health plan.' It covers the statutes and decisions of the states affecting the corporate structure, the problems involved in membership service contracts and their comparison with insurance policies, and the unique requirements of physicians' contracts.

Group health plans here discussed are those in which the member-patients sponsor and control the nonprofit corporation on a democratic or cooperative basis, or at least have an effective voice in its management. The corporation usually owns the …

Book Notes, Law Review Staff

Vanderbilt Law Review

Book Notes

Selected Essays on Family Law Compiled and Edited by a Committee of the Association of American Law Schools

Brooklyn: The Foundation Press, Inc., 1950. Pp. 1122. $9.50

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The Law of Cadavers and of Burial and Burial Places

By Percival E.Jackson

New York: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1950. Pp. lxxxvii, 734. $12.50

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Manual of Preventive Law

By Louis M. Brown

New York: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1950. Pp. 346. $5.00

Tort Actions For Injuries To Unborn Infants, William T. Gamble

Vanderbilt Law Review

Recently two American courts have recognized a right of infants to recover for prenatal injuries. In so meeting the challenge of the common law that "for every wrong there is a remedy" they have taken a step which no other court of final jurisdiction has taken on the strength of the common law alone...

That an infant "en ventre sa mere" is a distinct entity is a scientific, common sense, legally recognized fact. That this entity may suffer prenatal injuries and carry those injuries into postnatal life is well known. That in many cases adequate proof of causal relation could …

The Standard Of Care Owed By A Hospital To Its Patients, William J. Harbison

Vanderbilt Law Review

Despite the: great number of tort cases which have arisen between hospitals and their patients, comparatively little has been written upon the subject of the standard of care required of a hospital in its relationship with those who enter it for treatment. In this Note some of the types of problems arising out of this relationship will be examined.' Questions of substantive and procedural law will be treated together in order to present these problems more clearly.

Generally, public hospitals are excused from tort liability to their patients upon the ground of governmental immunity ; in most states charitable institutions …

Physicians And Surgeons-Status Of Osteopaths-Limitations On Practice, Daniel W. Reddin, Iii S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Until recently, the osteopath has generally been given a limited license. The present status of the osteopath is best understood by a comparison with that of the unlimited practitioner. Though most of the statutes have been examined, this comment is based primarily upon those of Illinois, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, California, Massachusetts and Indiana, which are fairly typical of the rest. These statutes vary widely in their provisions, but for the purposes of discussion, they have been treated in three arbitrary categories: (1) statutes in which the scope of the osteopath's license is considerably narrower than that of the …

Corporations-Right To Practice Optometry Through Licensed Employees, A. E. Anderson S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Defendant, an Oregon corporation engaged in a general optical business, employed in each of its stores a registered optometrist as manager. The optometrists were paid a flat salary and made examinations free of charge, whether eyeglasses were later purchased from defendant or not. The state commenced a proceeding to oust defendant of its corporate franchise on the ground that it was unlawfully engaged in the practice of optometry. The trial court dismissed the proceedings. On appeal, held, reversed. Because of the confidential relationship which exists between practitioner and patient, optometry must be classed as a profession, and it is …

Insurance-Death Of Insured Resulting From Criminal Abortion- Right Of Beneficiary, R. V. Wellman

Michigan Law Review

Insured died as the result of a criminal abortion to which she had voluntarily submitted. The policies issued on her life contained a provision to the effect that no benefits should be payable or recoverable should the insured die as a result of a violation of law. The insurer resisted the action brought by the named beneficiary on the policy on two grounds: (a) The insured's death was caused by her violation of law; (b) Although the stated terms of the policy be held not to exclude the risk of death thus caused, it would be contrary to public policy …

Contracts--Consideration-Performance Of One Alternatlve When There Is Dispute As To Which Is Owed, L. B. Lea

Michigan Law Review

Defendant issued a membership certificate to one Flowers providing for payment of $5000 in case of accidental death or $500 in case of death due to heart disease. Later Flowers was injured in an automobile accident and died an hour afterward. The beneficiary submitted proofs of loss, including a statement of a physician that death was caused by "coronary thrombosis. Shock from auto accident about one hour before death." Defendant sent to the beneficiary a draft for $500 clearly stating on its face that the endorsement of the check would be a settlement in full. After cashing the check, the …

Gray: Law And The Practice Of Medicine, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

A Review of LAW AND THE PRACTICE OF MEDICINE. By Kenneth George Gray.

Torts-Liability Of Charitable Hospital For Injuries To Patient Caused By Negligence Of Nurse And Intern. [New York]

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

Evidence -Witnesses - Privileged Communications Between Physician And Patient--Statutory Effect Of Asserting Privilege In Actions On Insurance Contracts, William H. Buchanan S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff, beneficiary of an insurance policy (but not the personal representative of the deceased insured), sued to recover the amount of the policy from the insurance company. As a defense the defendant claimed that the policy never became effective because the insured had made material misrepresentations in the application as to his state of health. To show that there had been such misrepresentations, the defendant proved that the insured had been treated by physicians during the five years preceding the issuance of the policy. Upon objectionμ by plaintiff the court excluded the testimony of the doctors as to the nature …

Legal Control Of Medical Practice: Validity And Methods, Kenneth C. Sears

Michigan Law Review

Legislators have deemed it necessary, in order to protect the public interest, to exercise some control over the practice of the healing art by physicians, surgeons, chiropractors, osteopaths, dentists, etc., both as to who may practice and in what manner the practice may be carried on. Legislators have also required, in certain situations, that designated persons submit to medical treatment. Both types of regulation give rise to various legal and constitutional problems and it is the purpose of this paper to discuss some of these problems.

Simulation Of Nervous And Mental Disease, Moses Keschner

Michigan Law Review

Simulation may be defined as a wilful, deliberate and fraudulent imitation or exaggeration of illness intended to deceive the observer for the purpose of gaining a consciously desired end. Simulation of a physical or mental illness is usually resorted to: (1) by persons who have sustained an injury, the disability resulting therefrom being compensable by benefits payable under the workmen's compensation law or by damages in personal injury actions based on alleged negligence; (2) by persons who wish to obtain insurance benefits for disability in accordance with the provisions of health, accident and life insurance policies, and included in this …

Medical And Social Factors In Crime, A. Warren Stearns

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Hospitals--Right To Exclude Physician From Use Of Hospital, Marcus Redwine Jr.

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Corporations - Physicians And Surgeons - Insurance - Sale Of Professional Services By A Corporation, Charles H. Haines Jr.

Michigan Law Review

The Group Health Association, a corporation for the mutual benefit of its members, employed licensed physicians to give medical care to its members. For a lump sum consideration of $40,000 the association agreed to extend similar medical and hospital services to such employees of the Home Owners' Loan Corporation office as paid the monthly fee. In fear of quo warranto proceedings by the district attorney for illegal practice of medicine and by the superintendent of insurance for selling insurance, the association sought a declaration of its right to provide medical services in this manner. Held, a non-profit corporation through …

Limitations Of Actions - Physicians And Surgeons - Malpractice - Accrual Of Cause Of Action, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Defendant, a physician, treated plaintiff's decedent for cancer. Defendant failed to remove certain radium beads from decedent's uterus, and their presence in her body caused her death approximately five years later. The fact that defendant failed to remove the radium beads was not learned by plaintiff until a few months before decedent's death. Plaintiff brought suit, under the Kansas Wrongful Death Statute, within two years of the discovery of the alleged malpractice. Held, since plaintiff's cause of action accrued when the injurious acts took place, and since the statutory two-year limitation upon the bringing of tort actions was applicable, …

Appendicitis In Law, Kurt Garve

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.