Title: Mallison v. Pomeroy

State: oregon

Issuer: Oregon Supreme Court

Document:

Affirmed December 7, 1955.
Wm. C. Ralston and W.K. Phillips, of Portland, argued the cause for appellant. With them on the brief was Leo Levenson, of Portland.
*691 Graham Walker, of Portland, argued the cause for respondent. With him on the brief were Earle V. White, Jr. and Emerson U. Sims, of Portland.
Before TOOZE, Acting Chief Justice, and ROSSMAN, LUSK, BRAND, LATOURETTE and PERRY, Justices.
AFFIRMED.
LATOURETTE, J.
The question posed is whether or not plaintiff has a cause of action for injuries sustained by her while she was a viable child in her mother's womb. The term "viable child" means a child capable of an independent existence without the mother's womb.
The case arises out of injuries causing cerebral palsy, a condition commonly known as spastic, allegedly sustained by plaintiff on December 25, 1948, while she was an unborn child, her mother then being six months pregnant. Plaintiff's complaint is predicated upon the negligence of defendant when his car crashed into the rear of a car in which her mother was seated. Approximately ten days after the collision the mother bore twins, one of whom immediately died. Defendant appeals from a judgment in favor of plaintiff, the surviving child.
The question presented is one of first impression in this state. There are two divergent schools of thought on this subject. The mother case in this country which denied liability is Dietrich v. Northampton (1884), 138 Mass 14, 52 Am Rep 242. The decision was primarily based on the proposition that until birth the child was a part of the mother.
This decision was followed by decisions in ten jurisdictions which are collated in 10 ALR2d, page 1060. Among them are the following: Allaire v. St. Luke's Hospital (1900), 184 Ill 359, 56 NE 638; Buel v. United *692 R. Co. (1913), 248 Mo 126, 154 SW 71; Drobner v. Peters (1921), 232 NY 220, 133 NE 567; and Mays v. Weingarten (1943), 82 NE2d 421. It is noteworthy that the highest courts of the above jurisdictions later overruled the earlier decisions and held for liability. See Williams v. Marion Rapid Transit, Inc. (1949), 152 Ohio St 114, 87 NE2d 334, 10 ALR2d 1051; Woods v. Lancet (1951), 303 NY 349, 102 NE2d 691, 27 ALR2d 1250; Amann v. Faidy (1953), 415 Ill 422, 114 NE2d 412; Steggal v. Morris (1953), 363 Mo 1224, 258 SW2d 577.
We call attention to the further following cases adhering to the modern view and which allow recovery: Verkennes v. Corniea (1949), 229 Minn 365, 38 NW2d 838, 10 ALR2d; Tucker v. Howard L. Carmichael & Sons, Inc. (1951), 208 Ga 201, 65 SE2d 909; Damasiewicz v. Gorsuch (1951), 197 Md 417, 79 A2d 550; Rainey et al. v. Horn (1954), 72 So2d 434. It is significant that the Massachusetts Supreme Court in the case of Bliss v. Passanesi (1950), 326 Mass 461, 95 NE2d 206, when the question was again before it, stated: "We do not intimate what our decision would be if the question were presented for the first time." From the foregoing it is thus seen that a majority of the jurisdictions considering the subject favor a right of action for prenatal injuries.
It would serve no useful purpose and would unnecessarily prolong this opinion if we reviewed the numerous cases dealing with the subject. A mere perusal of the above listed cases will disclose that the courts have dealt extensively with every phase of the question being considered. We do wish, however, to refer to several cases which, in our opinion, are outstanding and merit consideration. In Amann v. Faidy, *693 supra, Mr. Justice Schaefer, speaking for the Illinois Supreme Court, wrote as follows:
He then directs attention to the opinion of Mr. Justice Holmes in the case of Dietrich v. Northampton, supra, and states:
We call attention to the fact that this case overruled an earlier Illinois Supreme Court decision in the case of Allaire v. St. Luke's Hospital, supra.
Reading further from Mr. Justice Schaefer's opinion, we quote:
We next quote from the opinion of Mr. Chief Justice Duckworth of the Supreme Court of Georgia, in the case of Tucker v. Howard L. Carmichael & Sons Inc., supra, as follows:
In Damasiewicz v. Gorsuch, supra, the court of appeals of Maryland, through the opinion of Mr. Chief Justice Marbury, had the following to say:
The New York court of appeals in Woods v. Lancet, supra, in an opinion by Mr. Justice Desmond (which overruled an earlier New York decision), stated:
In arriving at a proper decision in this case we are not handicapped by lack of precedent as was Mr. Justice Holmes in the Dietrich case, as is disclosed by our extensive citation of cases.
1. Likewise, we do not think that the difficulty of determining the existence of a causal relation should be a bar to recovery inasmuch as the establishment of proximate cause obviously is an evidentiary problem, which, in the light of modern medical science, is not insurmountable.
2. In Oregon we have recognized by statute the separate entity of an unborn child by protecting him in *697 his property rights and against criminal conduct, and we can see no logical reason why a viable child should not be protected for injuries sustained through the tortious acts of another. See ORS 111.010; ORS 114.250; ORS 114.260; and ORS 163.060.
3. Article I, Section 10 of our constitution, provides for remedy by due course of law for every person for injury done to him in his person. In this connection, we quote from Williams v. Marion Rapid Transit, Inc., supra, it being the first decision by a court of last resort in the United States promulgating the so-called modern doctrine, as follows:
We conclude that plaintiff has a cause of action. In so holding, we are supported not only by the best reasoned modern judicial opinions, but also by the unanimous statements of the textbook and law review writers, including Professor Prosser. See Amann v. Faidy, supra.
The judgment of the learned trial judge is affirmed.
BRAND, J., concurs in result.