Papini v. Alexander Sanitarium, Inc.

NOURSE, P. J.

The plaintiffs sued for damages resulting from the death of their son, Joseph Papini, and had a verdict for $3,500. The defendants appeal from the judginent on the verdict raising two points—that the evidence is insufficient to show negligence on their part, and that the verdict is excessive. ■ • ¡

The record discloses a complete failure of proof ’ in both instances. The action was founded on the theory that the defendants, who conduct a private sanitarium for nervous diseases at Belmont, were negligent in their supervision of a patient named Boliva, and that because of such negligence, Boliva attacked Joseph Papini with a razor blade and a table fork inflicting upon him wounds from which he died. The charges of negligence are found in the fifth and sixth paragraphs of the complaint. They allege that Boliva was by the Superior Court in San Francisco "duly adjudged , dangerously insane”,.and was “committed” to the defendants’ sanitarium, and that the defendants knew that he was suffering from a “form of insanity known as homicidal mania” and that unless restrained might at any time violently attack other patients, and that he had “on previous occasions attacked other persons and was a dangerous person to be at large or unrestrained”. In paragraph six it was alleged that by reason of the carelessness and negligence of the defendants in failing to protect Joseph Papini from “the homicidal tendencies and mania and attack” of Boliva, the latter, on the 24th day of December “procured a razor blade and^a table fork and then and there attacked said Joseph Henry Papini” inflicting upon him wounds from which death proximately resulted on the 3d day of January, 1934. The undis

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puted evidence not only fails to prove these material allegations of the complaint, but in almost every instance it completely disproves them.

The facts disclosed by the evidence are that Boliva had been injured in the course of his employment and was seeking compensation before the state industrial accident commission While these proceedings were pending, physicians in charge of the case recommended that he be placed in the defendants ’ sanitarium, and be permitted to freely mingle with the other patients. This was done with full knowledge and sanction of his guardian and the physicians in charge. In the month of November, 1933, he was called before the industrial accident commission for further hearing, and at that time assaulted the attorney for the insurance carrier. Testimony was offered that this assault was deliberately provoked by the attorney for the purpose of instituting insanity proceedings against Boliva, but this was denied by the attorney when called as a witness in this case. The undisputed evidence is that Boliva became angered at the conduct of the attorney and that immediately after the assault the latter filed a charge in the Superior Court of San Francisco and endeavored to have Boliva adjudged insane. The only portion of those proceedings which appears in the record is the judgment ordering that Boliva be “discharged from custody”. Evidence was offered that his guardian thereafter returned him to the sanitarium with instructions that the judge in the insanity proceedings had ordered that he be paroled in the custody of Ms guardian and that the sanitarium was directed to place him under constant guard. The bailiff of the court in the insanity proceedings testified to conversations which he had had with the judge in the insanity proceedings relative to what should be done in regard to his care and custody after he had been discharged. The incompetency of all this testimony is so apparent that no further comment is required, but the - only testimony offered, both competent and incompetent, completely disproves plaintiffs’ allegation that Boliva had been “duly adjudged dangerously insane”. There is no evidence that he was “committed” to the sanitarium. The only evidence is that he was taken there by his guardian and that the cost of his maintenance was paid by his insurance carrier. There is no evidence of any character that any of the defendants knew that he was suffering from any form of insanity