Opinion ID: 1890837
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Permitting Dr. Montgomery to Testify to History of Plaintiff's Subjective Complaints.

Text: Within thirty days following the accident plaintiff consulted an attorney and gave the notice to the city required by sec. 81.15, Stats. Thereafter she received a whiplash injury in a rear-end automobile collision on June 24, 1957. The next day after this latter accident she first consulted Dr. Robert Montgomery. She claimed she had made the appointment before the accident of the day before because her leg was bothering her. Nevertheless, Dr. Montgomery testified that most of the initial consultation was concerned with plaintiff's whiplash injury. Plaintiff's history of subjective symptoms related to the doctor on that occasion were read into the record over objection. With regard to her leg, she complained of pain when walking and during weather changes, discoloration, and tenderness. Dr. Montgomery found this tenderness centered at the point where the leg-lifting muscle attached. X rays taken at various times up to date of trial revealed no evidence of damage. On July 9, 1957, Dr. Montgomery noted that plaintiff reported no appreciable change in the irregular pain and tenderness . . . of the left leg. He saw her again on July 30, 1957, November 11, 1957, and February 27, 1958.  On May 29, 1958, plaintiff still complained of pain in her left leg during cold, damp weather and upon rising in the morning. Dr. Montgomery could find no objective symptoms: Leg movement was normal, measurements of both legs were within permissible variances, and no redness or local heat was evident. Plaintiff again consulted Dr. Montgomery on August 28, 1958, with no report of improvement. Then on October 23, 1961, the day before the instant trial began, plaintiff again consulted Dr. Montgomery evidently at the urging of her counsel. The trial court over objection admitted her statements of subjective symptoms on that date. The court felt that such symptoms were admissible under the authority of Thompson v. Nee (1961), 12 Wis. (2d) 326, 107 N. W. (2d) 150, though it expressed some doubt as to its ruling. With the exception of subjective symptoms related by plaintiff to Dr. Montgomery on the day before trial and testified to by him, we hold that the trial court's rulings, which permitted Dr. Montgomery to testify concerning the subjective symptoms related by plaintiff, were proper because of plaintiff's testimony that she consulted Dr. Montgomery for treatment. The fact that plaintiff related these subjective symptoms to the doctor after she retained an attorney is not controlling. Thompson v. Nee, supra, at page 330. Dr. Montgomery's testimony concerning plaintiff's report of subjective symptoms on the day before trial was inadmissible because of the report's proximity to trial. Cf. Schields v. Fredrick (1939), 232 Wis. 595, 598, 288 N. W. 241. Nevertheless, even if Dr. Montgomery's opinion with regard to permanency of muscle damage were to be held prejudicial, because based entirely upon subjective symptoms related by plaintiff on the day before trial, Allied cannot now predicate reversible error thereon because it  failed to renew its objection on motions after verdict by merely alleging that there were errors in the trial instead of apprising the trial court of the particular error relied upon. Michalski v. Wagner (1960), 9 Wis. (2d) 22, 29, 100 N. W. (2d) 354, invoking the rule of Wells v. Dairyland Mut. Ins. Co. (1957), 274 Wis. 505, 518, 80 N. W. (2d) 380.