DOCTOR'S CLAIM

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIV, Issue 10279, 14 May 1919, Page 4

DOCTOR'S CLAIM

AN AUCKLAND CASE

ALLEGED WRONGFUL DISMISSAL AND MISCONDUCT.

Press Association. AUCKLAND, May 13. A civil actdon possessing some extraordinary features, in that the statement of defence contains allegations against the professional conduct of plaintiff while he held the position of medical superintendent of t'he publio hospital at M'angonui, was commenced at-the Supreme Court before Mr Justice Cooper and a jury of twelve. The plaintiff (Percy W. Menzies, of Clyde, medical practitioner) sought to recover from the Bay of Islands Hospital and Charitablo Aid Board the sum of £2Ol as general damages and £3OO as special damages for alleged wrongful dismissal. The statement of. claim showed that on October 4th, 1913, the defendant board appointed plaintiff as medical superintendent of the public hospital at Mangonui at a salary of £l5O per annum, with house allowance and certain allowances for maternity cases and the right of private practice. The appointment was not tor any definite term, and there was nd* clause in the contract as to the notice required to terminate the engagement. On December 4th, 1917, the defendant board, without making any complaint and without giving him any opportunity of being previously heard in his own defence, notified the plaintiff that his engagement would terminate at the expiration of three mouths. The said notification concluded with the following- paragraph:—"This action has not been taken because of any want of skill upon your part as medical superintendent of the hospital." Plaintiff alleged that the notification amounted to wrongful dismissal, inasmuch as. the notice given was not a reasonable notice. In 'the circumstances of the case, by means of dismissal, the plaintiff was forced to leave the district and to; give up a growing private practice, and also to give up appointments as medical superintendent to the Natives and as doctor to the Medical Club, which were also held by him while medical superintendent of the Mangonui Hospital, there being not sufficient remuneration in the private practice alone in such a district to support a medical practitioner. The defence was a denial of all the allegations in the statement of claim, with the exceptions of those relating to the appointment of the plaintiff as medical superintendent, to the term of appointment, and the manner of terminating the engagement. For a further defence, it was contended that the plaintiff misconducted cj hjiuself in the service of the defendant board by wilfully disobeying the orders of the board; by oharging foes for examination to persons desirous of entering the hospital, and by making exorbitant charges and so tending to render his ■assistance unavailable in the district oxcept for wealthy patients; by unreasonably refusing admission of patients to the hospital; by;unreasonably-refus-ing to work w'ith a district nurse at Kaeo as from Nqvembjfii 22nd,: 1917; by demanding and receiving personal, payment from hospital patients; by being offensive in his manner and asing offensive and improper language to members of the board when being spoken to about hospital matters; by insisting on treating hospital patients as private patients and oharging for operations and attention to such patients: by making false and misleading charges in writing to the defendant board on November 22nd, 1917, against Nurse Bedford, an employee of the'"board'; by insisting on a guarantee of fees before attending cases of extreme urgency ; and, by so doing, conducting himself an the above manner as to arouse public indignation, as a result of which publio resolutions of protest from the Whangaroa County Council on November 2Sih, 1917, and from a. general public meeting of residents of the county of Wbnngaroa, held on December ?lst, 1917, were sent to.the board in regard to his actions, and so rendered his seivicebi a> a medical man useless in the hospital district.

The plaintiff was giving evidence when the court adjourned.