Toy v. Mackintosh

110 N.E. 1034 (1916)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

P went to the dentist to have several teeth extracted. P contends one of the teeth fell into his throat and lodged in his lung. P was in good health before the trip to the dentist and soon after he had a severe cough and pain, with dizziness, numbness in his right arm and leg, and partial speech loss. Nine weeks after the trip to the dentist, P coughed up a tooth, and the symptoms disappeared rapidly. P offered no dental or medical evidence to show whether the symptoms he experienced were caused by the tooth. D called four medical experts to the stand to show that P's symptoms were consistent with hemiplegia and that the tooth, wherever it was located for the nine weeks, could not have caused P's medical condition. D also offered expert testimony that the fact that a tooth fell into P's mouth during the extraction was not carelessness on his part. D requested a number of jury instructions relating to the carelessness and the subsequent symptoms suffered by P. The trial court denied them. D appealed.