Brown v. Shyne, 242 N.Y. 176, 151 N.E. 197 (1926). Defendant was not licensed chiropractor. Despite this, he provided chiropractic treatment to Plaintiff. Plaintiff was rendered paralyzed by Defendant’s “treatment.” During trial, the trial judge instructed the jury that Defendant violated a statute by practicing medicine without a license. He further instructed the jury that they can consider this as a factor in determining whether Defendant was negligent. Jury came back with a verdict for Plaintiff. On appeal, the issue was whether the trial judge erred by instructing the jury that they could consider Defendant’s violation of the statute in determining his negligence. The Court of Appeal held that the trial judge did in fact err by providing this instruction. The Court reasoned that, “breach or neglect of duty imposed by statute or ordinance may be evidence of negligence only if there is logical connection between the proven neglect of the statutory duty and the alleged negligence.” The intended purpose of the statute is to save the people from unskilled and careless practitioners and unless it can be shown that the defendant was careless or unskilled, his failure to obtain a license cannot be connected with the negligence determination.
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