Shaw v. Owl Drug Co.

KNIGHT, J.

This is an action for damages on account of personal injuries plaintiff claims to have sustained through the negligence of defendants. The jury returned a verdict in plaintiff’s favor and defendants appealed from the judgment entered thereon.

The case grows out of a sidewalk accident which happened in San Francisco on December 4, 1930. On that day plaintiff was walking along the easterly side of Stockton Street, and just as she was crossing over the doors of a sidewalk elevator operated by the defendant drug company in eonnéetion with the basement of a building it was then occupying, the doors of the elevator were suddenly and without warning raised from below by the defendant Gerardo, an employee of said drug company, and thereby plaintiff was thrown violently to the pavement and severely injured. She suffered a severe sprain and tearing of the ligaments of the left ankle and left knee, a sprain of the

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left hip and groin, and a particularly severe contusion of the left leg above the knee and over the outside of the left femur. The next day the entire leg was badly swollen and discolored from the hip to the ankle. She was confined to her bed, under the care of a nurse, for about six days, and thereafter, although suffering intense and constant pain in the leg, was able to get about with the aid of a cane. Immediately following the accident .the employees of the drug company summoned Dr. Chapman to administer whatever medical and surgical treatment was necessary; and he continued to treat her until May, 1931, at which time he went away on a vacation. Dr. Parsons then took charge of the case, and every two or three days, sometimes oftener, plaintiff called at his office to receive treatments, including electrotherapeutic, heat and diathermy. These treatments continued until August 27, 1931. On that day and while plaintiff was still under the care of Dr. Parsons, her left leg collapsed without any apparent reason, and she fell to the floor. This happened in her apartment while she was walking from one room to another. Dr. Parsons was called at once and plaintiff was sent to the hospital. X-ray pictures were taken and they revealed an irregular fracture of the femur just above the knee at the particular site of the severe contusions suffered by plaintiff in the sidewalk accident. The pictures also disclosed a pathological condition of the bone, doubtless due to a metastatic carcinoma or secondary cancerous condition. The center of the bone at the exact point where the fracture occurred was rarefied—in a porous condition—and the diseased condition of the bone was unquestionably the immediate cause of the collapse of the leg. This second injury rendered plaintiff helpless. Since it happened she has not been able to walk at all, and can be moved about only on a stretcher; and she has been compelled to undergo a great deal of medical, surgical and hospital treatment. The jury awarded her $9,000 damages.