Craig v. Chenoweth

Sybert, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. This action was brought in the Circuit Court for Prince George’s County by the appellants, Nila Fern Craig and James ³⁹⁹ R. Craig, her husband, to recover for personal injuries suffered by the wife and consequential damages sustained by the husband as the result of an accident in which the husband’s car, being operated by the wife, was struck in the rear by the tractor trailer of the appellee, Vernon Holmes Chenoweth. After the accident, Mrs. Craig sought medical assistance for injuries to her head, neck and shoulder, and a long course of treatment ensued. About six weeks after the accident, and while still being treated for the injuries to her neck and shoulder, Mrs. Craig suffered a partial paralysis of her left forefinger and thumb.

The appellants sued for damages for the injuries to the wife’s head and shoulder area and for the partial paralysis of the left hand, asserting that these injuries were permanent. After the case was heard, Judge Parker limited the amount of recoverable damages when he instructed the jury that “* * * inasmuch as there is no medical testimony to a reasonable medical certainty that she [Mrs. Craig] has suffered a permanent injury, you are not, as a matter of law, to return a verdict for her for a permanent injury of any type * * The jury was also instructed, in regard to the paralysis, that no award could be made “in view of the fact that there is no medical testimony to tie this particular complaint in with the accident.” The appellants excepted to these instructions. The jury returned an award of $1,625 for the wife and $680 for the husband. The award to the husband was equal to the actual amount of expenses occasioned by the accident, while that to the wife was approximately $1,000 over her actual loss of salary as a telephone company employee.

Aggrieved by the size of the awards, the plaintiffs appealed, claiming that the trial court erred, first, when it excluded recovery for the paralysis of the forefinger and thumb, and, second, when it refused to permit the jury to consider whether Mrs. Craig’s injuries were permanent in nature. With regard to the first point, after the appellants’ family physician, Dr. Irey, had testified as to the wife’s injuries and subsequent treatment, he was asked about the paralysis of her forefinger and thumb. He replied: “I frankly did not know why or exactly what the relationship was with the injury that she ⁴⁰⁰ has sustained”. There was no other medical evidence on this point.

Thus the appellants’ own medical witness was unable to say there was any causal connection between the paralysis of the wife’s hand and the accident, or the injuries which she had received as a result of the appellee’s negligence. However, the appellants contend that the causal connection did not have to be established by expert medical testimony, relying on the following excerpt from the case of Wilhelm v. State Traffic Comm., 230 Md. 91, 99 , 185 A. 2d 715 (1962) : “There are, unquestionably, many occasions where the causal connection between a defendant’s negligence and a disability claimed by a plaintiff does not need to be established by expert testimony. Particularly is this true when the disability develops coincidentally with, or within a reasonable time after, the negligent act, or where the causal connection is clearly apparent from the illness itself and the circumstances surrounding it, or where the cause of the injury relates to matters of common experience, knowledge, or observation of laymen. * * *” The appellants maintain that the paralysis was “reasonably coincidental with the negligent act, and was by the common experience, knowledge, and observation of lay jurymen within the usual