CLAIM AGAINST DOCTOR

Press, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 26855, 7 October 1952, Page 8

CLAIM AGAINST DOCTOR

JUDGE REFUSES NEW TRIAL VERDICT FOR PLAINTIFF TO STAND (New Zealand Press Association) INVERCARGILL, Oct. 6. There will be no new trial in what is known as the forceps case, and the jury’s verdict awarding the plamtitt £2OOO general damages is to stand. This is the effect of a reserved judgment delivered by Mr Justice North on motions by both plaintiff and defendant for a new trial. The case was one m which Angus Donald Macdonald, a farmer, of West Plains (Mr L. F. Moller), sued John Alexander Pottinger. a doctor, of Invercargill (Mr I. A. Arthur) for £5OOO general damages and £331 4s 9d special damages, on the grounds that the defendant was negligent in leaving a pair of forceps in the plaintiff’s body after an operation, and in the treatment and attention he gave to the plaintiff after the operation, with the result that the forceps remained undiscovered. The case was heard at the Invercargill Supreme Court last June, before Mr Justice North and a special jury of 12. The jury found that the defendant was not guilty of negligence in carrying out the operation, but that he was negligent in failing to ascertain that the forceps were in the plain tiff’s body. The jury awarded the plaintiff £2OOO general damages, and both sides moved for a new trial.