Medical Jurisprudence, Forensic medicine and Toxicology. Vol. 1Witthaus, R. A. (Rudolph August)
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Medical Jurisprudence, Forensic medicine and Toxicology. Vol. 1
Witthaus, R. A. (Rudolph August)
Medical jurisprudence; Poisons; Toxicology
Whether it is the duty of the Court to enforce the privilege where it
is apparent and the patient is not present to object, is a question
that seems to be variously regarded. In Indiana a court has refused
a new trial for newly discovered evidence of the privileged sort, on
the ground that if objection were madeon the new trial it would be
rejected.[444] But where the evidence of a physician to contradict
another physician, who was witness to a will, was received without
objection, it was said that it should not be withdrawn by the Court
from the consideration of the jury or its value commented on as matter
of law.[445]
In Michigan, it has been said that a commissioner, whose ordinary duty
is to take all evidence offered, should refuse to take this privileged
evidence; and that it should be stricken out without motion by the
judge when returned by the commissioner, and that the physician should
not be allowed to violate the privilege.[446] It has also been held
that an order for the compulsory physical examination of a person by
a physician for the purpose of testifying should not be granted, and
that evidence so obtained should be stricken out, but on the ground
that it was a violation of personal liberty, rather than of statutory
privilege.[447]
But in New York it has been held that where a person voluntarily in
an action exhibits an injured part as evidence, the adverse party is
entitled to follow it up by a personal or professional inspection of
the injured part.[448]
In Missouri, it has been said that the physician should be told that he
is not at liberty to testify as to privileged information.[449]
In New York, in an early case in chancery, the chancellor said that
a master was wrong in supposing there was legal evidence before him,
where a physician had given evidence privileged under the statute;[450]
but this decision was reversed on appeal, the Court of Errors saying
that as no objection was made before the master by a party, the
evidence was competent and legal.[451] This question seems to have been
settled in New York by the decision in _Hoyt v. Hoyt_,[452] that the
law does not prohibit the examination of a physician but it prohibits
the evidence being received in the face of objection, so that if no
objection is made by a party it is not the province of the Court to
reject the evidence.
Where it appears that privileged information was improperly admitted,
it is not ground for reversal on appeal if it is apparent that the
appellant was not injured by its reception.[453]
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