Case ID: ill-app_62/html/0034-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "\n      Mr. Justice Waterman", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

E. J. Thomas v. Mark S. Leavy.
    1. Evidence—Sufficient to Sustain a Verdict.—In a controversy concerning the defendant’s liability to pay the plaintiff’s bill for services as a physician, to a third person, the plaintiff testified that defendant said 'to him, ‘ ‘ Doctor, you take care of the girls and attend to them and I will pay you for your entire services, for those you have rendered heretofore and what you may hereafter render,” and the defendant testified that he said, “ Give this girl the attention she requires and I will see that she has some money to pay her bills.” Held, that, under this evidence, the jury were warranted in returning a verdict for services rendered after •the conversation.
    Assumpsit, for services. Appeal from the Circuit Court of Cook County; the Hon. Elbridge Haneoy, Judge, presiding. Heard in this court at the October term, 1895.
    Affirmed.
    Opinion filed January 22, 1896.
    Statement of the Case.
    This is a casé brought in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois, by Mark S. Leavy to enforce an alleged promise by E. J. Thomas to pay a doctor’s bill, contracted by one Nellie Fraser.
    The plaintiff below, filed the common counts and an
    
      affidavit of claim for $310; the defendant filed pleas of nonassumpsit, the statute of frauds, and want of consideration. A trial was had with a jury, which returned a verdict of $155 in favor of the plaintiff, upon which judgment was entered.
    Appellee testified that he is a physician, and first met Mr, Thomas on January 3, 1891; that before meeting him he had been attending his wife’s sister, Nellie Fraser, for about ten days; that he was called to attend her by Henry Kemp, her uncle, at whose house she was stopping; that he did not know Kemp or Miss Fraser at that time, and had never seen either of them; that on an occasion of one of his professional calls, he met Mr. Thomas, and when leaving the house, Mr. Thomas said to him: “Doctor, you take care of the girls and attend to them, and I will pay you for your entire services, for those you have rendered heretofore and what you may hereafter rénder. There is my card. Send the bill to me and I will pay all expenses.”
    As to this the appellant testified as follows: “ During that conversation Dr. Leavy never referred to the bill at all, but I said to Dr. Leavy, give this girl the attention she requires, and I will see that she has some money to pay her bills,’ and that is the only statement I ever made to Dr. Leavy in regard to that bill.”
    Appellee testified: “ I sent him a bill as requested, and he afterward wrote as follows :
    Chicago, May 14, 1892.
    Dr. M. S. Leavy, Albany, N. T.
    Dear Sir : I am in receipt of your favor of the 12th inst. * * * 1 be in Albany soon, and then will arrange for a settlement for your services.
    Tours truly,
    E. J. Thomas.”
    Knight & Brown, attorneys for appellant.
    Percy B. Herr and Jas. S. Harlan, attorneys for appellee.
   Mr. Justice Waterman

delivered the opinion op the Court.

Under the evidence the .jury were warranted in rendering a verdict for the proper charge for the services rendered after the conversation between appellant and appellee.. The jury seem to have done no more than this.

The judgment of the Circuit Court is therefore affirmed.