Court Opinion

ID: 9574753
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 21:07:46.360939+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:44:54.991513
License: Public Domain

Evans, Judge,
dissenting.
Plaintiff sued defendant (a physician) for negligence in his professional conduct and in the performance of a serious operation upon her. The lower court sustained defendant’s motion for summary judgment, and a majority of this court affirms. I respectfully dissent.
1. First, let it be remembered that plaintiff alleged in her complaint what the physician did, punctured her uterus and perforated her womb [T.3], and if her complaint is true there can be no question as to defendant physician’s being negligent. She did not even know the operation was to be performed, but first learned of it afterwards, upon regaining consciousness, and sufficient use of her senses to make inquiry of the physician as to what he had done to her.
2. Plaintiff had no duty whatever of introducing any evidence to sustain the allegations of her complaint as against a motion for summary judgment until defendant first introduced evidence sufficient to "pierce the pleadings.” This the defendant failed to do. He introduced his own testimony and that of a fellow physician, but the opinion evidence of these two experts can never "pierce the pleadings” — and can never be sufficient evidence upon which to base a summary judgment. General Motors Corp. v. Wilson, 120 Ga. App. 156, 157 (169 SE2d 749); Ginn v. Morgan, 225 Ga. 192 (1, 3) (167 SE2d 393); Harrison v. Tuggle, 225 Ga. 211 (2) (167 SE2d 395).
3. This court has held many, many times that a jury and other fact-finding bodies are not bound by opinion evidence; that they may believe it or not; give credence to it or not; they may treat it as they will, and they may completely disregard such opinion evidence without *112rhyme or reason. Liberty Mut. Ins. Co. v. Williams, 44 Ga. App. 452 (1) (161 SE 853); Ocean Acc. &c. Corp. v. Lane, 64 Ga. App. 149 (1) (12 SE2d 413); Holmes v. Harden, 96 Ga. App. 365, 371 (100 SE2d 101).
4. But let us go a step further and note the amazing status of this case at the time the trial court granted defendant’s motion for summary judgment. Plaintiff testified (beginning at transcript p. 50) among other things as follows: (1) She did not remember signing a written consent for the performance of a dilation and curettage (D & C), but she went to the doctor for pain in her back and was not aware that a D & C was to be performed. (T. 62)
(2) Her husband told the doctor not to perform the D & C. (T. 76)
(3) Another doctor, (Raynor) when .made known that what was done, said "it’s crazy” (to have performed such an operation). (T. 97)
(4) Defendant Doctor Hulsey admitted that in performance of the D & C he did actually puncture the uterus (perforated the womb) and that although he had performed more than one hundred operations known as D & C, this was the first and only time he had ever punctured the uterus and perforated the womb. (T. Ill, 122)
(5) The doctor produced a writing which he contended plaintiff signed and thereby consented to the operation. She testified her memory was void as to all matters covering this period and she could not remember signing it, nor could she deny signing, but as alleged in her complaint (T. 2), if she signed it, she did it while she was under heavy sedation.
No person in his right mind would have signed the paper relied on by the doctor. It was the most far-reaching, ridiculous and completely ludicrous paper that could be imagined.
(6) The paper states: "I consent to the performance of operations and procedures in addition to or different from those now planned, whether or not arising from presently unknown conditions which the above-named doctor or his assistants may consider necessary or advisable in the course of the operation.” (Emphasis supplied.) It also authorized the disposal of "limbs which *113may be removed.” (T. 127)
Under this monstrosity, if she signed it and was rational and understood it, the physician could have severed the patient’s head from her body and disposed of the head with no liability against him if he "considered same necessary,” even though in fact it might be proven that this was not necessary. Did the doctor consider it necessary? That was the only limitation in the alleged written consent. Of course such a paper is void on its face.
5. Here we are not talking about pleadings (which defendant failed to pierce), but we are talking about sworn testimony. A reading of her depositions should be all that is required to show there were vital issues of fact for the jury to pass upon in this case. And when it comes to the weight to be given such testimony, let it be remembered'that the Georgia Appellate courts have held time without number that a patient knows more about his own injuries and the cause thereof than "a whole college of physicians.” See City of Atlanta v. Champe, 66 Ga. 659, 663; Southern R. Co. v. Tankersley, 3 Ga. App. 548 (1) (60 SE 297).
6. Again, the plaintiff filed her response to defendant’s interrogatories (T. 128-132), and here we have contradictions of defendant’s contentions which call for a jury to settle the issues.
7. Surely the majority opinion did not expect that plaintiff was required (nor would she have been allowed) to testify that defendant physician was negligent. She would not have been allowed to use that word because that would have been a conclusion and would have been the ultimate fact the jurors were impaneled and sworn to decide. It would have invaded the province of the jury. See Shaw v. Jones, Newton & Co., 133 Ga. 446 (2) (66 SE 240); Whatley v. Henry, 65 Ga. App. 668 (7) (16 SE2d 214). She simply testified to (and alleged in her complaint) facts that require the conclusion that defendant was negligent respecting the operation and the circumstances under which it was performed.
8. I dissent and would reverse the trial court in its grant of summary judgment in favor of defendant.
I am authorized to state that Judge Webb concurs in this dissent; and Presiding Judge Pannell and Judge *114Quillian concur in the result of the dissent.