Page:The Art of Cross-Examination.djvu/76
THE ART OF CROSS-EXAMINATION made one of those lucky "bull's eyes" that is perhaps worth recording. It was a damage case brought against the city by a lady who, on her way from church one spring morning, had tripped over an obscure encumbrance in the street, and had, in consequence, been practically bedridden for the three years leading up to the day of trial. She was brought into the court room in a chair and was placed in front of the iury, a pallid, pitiable object, sur- rounded by her women friends, who acted upon this occa- sion as nurses, constantly bathing her hands and face with ill-smelling ointments, and administering restora- tives, with marked effect upon the jury. Her counsel, Ex-chief Justice Noah Davis, claimed that her spine had been permanently iniured, and asked the jury for 5o,ooo damages. It appeared that Dr. Ranhey had been in constant attendance upon the patient ever since the day of her accident. He testified that he had visited her some three hundred times and had examined her minutely at least two hundred times in order to make up his mind as to the absolutely correct diagnosis of her case, which he was now thoroughly satisfied was one of genuine disease of the spinal marrow itself. Judge Davis asked him a few preliminary questions, and then gave the doctor his head and let him "turn to the jury and tell them all about it." Drf Ranney spoke uninterruptedly for nearly three-quarters of an hour. He described in 74
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