Devine

In this malpractice action against a physician, a jury verdict in favor of the defendant was set aside upon plaintiff’s motion for a new trial upon the ground of insufficiency of the evidence. Defendant has appealed from that order. It is necessary to reverse because the order did not contain an adequate statement of reasons as required by Code of Civil Procedure section 657.

The basis of plaintiff’s case was that she was suffering from a malignant condition which would have been discovered and treated successfully had defendant followed the proper standard of practice. On August 5, 1970, defendant had taken a Papanicolaou smear which he had sent to a cytotechnologist, who read it at her home, as was her custom, without any direct supervision by a medical doctor. The technologist read the smear as negative, though it should have been read as containing atypical cells. It was plaintiff’s theory that had the proper standard of practice been followed, the chances of a mistake would have been minimized, and a proper reading would have led to further investigation, with the probability that the malignancy would have been diagnosed in time for successful treatment.

The…