AN UNUSUAL ACTION.

Taranaki Daily News, 15 May 1919, Page 5

AN UNUSUAL ACTION.

DOCTOR SUES HOSPITAL BQARB-.: EXTRAORDINARY FEATURES: By Telegraph;— Press Association. Auckland, May 13: A civil action possessing some extraordinary features, in that the statement of defence contains allegations against the professional conduct of the plaintiff while lie held the position of medical superintendent of the public hospital at Mangonui, 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 Charitable Aid Board the sum of £2Ol as general damages and £3OO as special damages for alleged wrongful dismissal. The statement of claims showed that on October 4, 1013, the defendant board appointed the plaintiff as medical superintendent of the public hospital at Mangonui at a salary of dCrno per annum, with house allowance and certain allowances for maternity eases, and the right of private practico The appointment was not for any definite term, and there was no clause in the contract as to the notice required to terminate the engagement. On December 4, 1917, the defendant board, without making any complaint, and without giving him any opportunity of being previously heard in his own defence, notified plaintiff that his engagement would terminate at the expiration of three months. The said notification concluded with the 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 reasonable notice in the circumstances of the case. By means of the 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 Mangonui hospital, there being not sufficient remuneration in the private practice alone in such a district to support a medical practitioner.

The rkfonee wag a denial of all the allegations in the statement of claim. With the exemption of Those Telatim; to the appo;r.,u»nt of the plaintiff as medical superintendent, to the term of appointment, and the manner'of terminating the engagement. For further defence it was contended that the plaintiff misconducted himself in the service of tlio defendant board by wilfully disobeying the orders of the board by "charging fees for examination to persons desirous of entering the hospital, by making exorbitant charges, and so tending to render his assistance unavailable in the district except for wealthy patients; by unreasonably refusing the admission of patients to the hospital: by unreasonably refusing to work with the District Nurse at Kaeo, as from November 22, 1017; by demanding and receiving personal payment from hospital patients; bv being offensive in bis manner, and using offensive and improper language to members of the Iward when being spoken to about hospital matters; by insisting Qn treating hospital patients as private patients, and charging for operations and attention to such patients; by making false and misleading charges in writing to the defendant board on November 22, 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 conducting himself in the above manner as to arouse public indignation, as the result of which public resolutions of protest from the Whimgaroa County Council on November 2R, 1017, and from a general public meeting of residents of the countv of Whangaroa, held on December 1. 1017. were sentjto the board in regard to his actions, and so rendered his services as medical man useless in the hospital district. Plaintiff was giving evidence when the court adjourned.