A TOOTHSOME MORSEL

NZ Truth, Issue 881, 14 October 1922, Page 5

A TOOTHSOME MORSEL

Vindictive Petone Dentist After spending fire clays listening to evidence and argument, long winded and bristling -with dental terms, Judge Reed unburdened himself m the Supreme Court on Thursday of his opinion m regard to the Petone dentistry squabble. The protracted proceedings arose out of a claim brought by Mrs Toomath, of Petone, against the Elite Dental Parlors, of that town, for '£400 general and £2S' l6s 4d special damages. ' In traversing the allegations of plaintiff,: his 'Honor observed that her mouth, deformed by successive operations, would now require a special plate to equip it with false teeth to take the place of the four molars of which she was. now bereft.' The onus was upon her to prove that Fernandez, the member of the defendant firm who performed the original extraction, had been negligent m the operation, and m consequence she had suffered damage. "In my opinion," said his Honor, '-'she has FAILED TO PROVE NEGLIGENCE. That should be the end of the ease, but I go further, and say she has not proved that the injury to her mouth was due to any act of Fernandez's negligence or otherwise. ' It was clearly proved that it was not a good extraction, but the evidence of the experts that have been called satisfies me that the faulty extraction, and the results of that might have occurred without, any negligence whatever on the part of the dentist. "I think it is extremely unfortunate for the plaintiff — and I agree with the counsel for defendant that she is MUCH TO BE PITIED m this 1 matter — that the .extraction took place immediately before, the holidays (December 23). If it had taken place at any other time she would have returned to the Elite Dental Parlors and been treated, and thereby saved much suffering and loss. "Unfortunately she went to the dental rooms of a business rival — and' „ don't say these things unless I am very satisfied about them — and for ULTERIOR PURPOSES he seized upon this apparently trivial injury that this woman had suffered and set out from the commencement to build up a case against defendants. His motive m doing so seems to be fairly clear upon the evidence. These two business places were m rivalry and it was the desire of Armstrong to help his own business by obtaining," if possible, an amalgamation of the two. Undoubtedly, there was feeling as well, but, as I gather from the evidence, Armstrong was prepared to ■sink any personal feelings that he had against Riddler (.of the defendant company) m the interests of his business. That appears to be the only possible deduction from the evidence, and I summarised that evidence." His Honor traversed the salient points ■he had noted, and observed firstly that Armstrong drew the tooth loosened m tlie extraction of the first. "Putting it m the mildest form, a doubtful thing to do," said his Honor. '•I think most dentists would have made, an attempt, probably a successful one, to have saved that tooth. As for the condition that it was m, I view with a * GOOD DEAL OF; SUSPICION the extraordinary fact that all the witnesses, except one, who showed some indefiniteness, were prepared to swear that that tooth was hanging below its neighbor by an eighth of ah inch. It is clear from the expert evidence brought by the defence, and no ■ suspicion can attach to it, that with the tooth down an eighth of an mcii there was a considerable probability of its being- saved." However, continued his Honor, the. tc-dth was drawn immediately by Armstrong, and he, furthermore, injected a local anaesthetic iri the vicinity of the cavity caused by the first extraction — a .strong disposing cause, for the subsequent inflammation, for to have been of any value m allaying pain it would have had to spread to the actual wound., Then referring to Armstrong's encounter ''with "Fernandez some days afterwards m Auckland, his Honor observed that, if the affair was such a shocking- display on the part of the operator, Armstrong 1 would have made special") reference to .it at that time. But Armstrong's object then was to effect an amalgamation. After, his visit to the Elite Parlors ou his return from Auckland he saw that an amalgamation could not be achieved. "The only thing then," said his Honoi\ "was to push this 'case to the utmost, and the evidence shows that every attempt was made to make, this case as complete as possible. ;. "The evidence went to show that the next ; step, the operation for curetting, had the effect of increasing the size of the cavity. Then a most extraordinary thing happened. Two days later the woman was taken into Wellington by Mawson under instruction . from Armstrong for no other purpose I

than to collect evidence for this case." Dr.. McLean/ was visited and dentists and an X-ray photograph of the jaw was taken while the woman was " m the personal conduct of an emplo3 r eio of Armstrong:. "This was done," added his Honor, "for no other purpose than to strengthen the case." After further reference to the photograplv and other aspects of the case, his Honor observed: "Apart from, the fact that it is not proved that there was any. negligence on the part of defendant it is not 'proved that theso results were due m any way to his act. lam not prepared to say that the evidence shows they were due : to the acts of Armstrong- and other dentists, but it is perfectly clear that it would be impossible for the Court to tell that. It was not proved that these injuries were the result of the operation performed by Fernandez and for that reason plaintiff's .case must fail.; I again express my sym-' pa thy for the plaintiff m this matter, btft the, fact that I sympathise with her cannot affect, the legal position at all. Judgment is for defendant, with costs." . : "Perhaps yoiir Honor, taking into consideration the facts of the plaintiffs, position, will make costs on the lowest scale," said Lawyer Siev\vright from the plaintiff's ' corner. His Honor replied that he was afraid he could, not do that. He was bound by-a scale according to the amount claimed. "But 1 don't suppose that the plaintiff pays them," added his Honor. , Mr O'Leary; Perhaps your Honor would like, to order that the costs be. borne by -someone else. / ' ■ 'T had better not express an opinion oh that matter," returned his Honor. ' i