A Mother's Death, A Baby's Lawsuit
In a heart-wrenching 1892 legal filing, an infant daughter’s father sues a doctor for $5,000, claiming malpractice led to the death of the child’s mother shortly after childbirth.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Suit was instituted yesterday in the superior court against Dr. B. Myers for $5,000 damages for alleged malpractice, by which it is claimed that Mrs. Mary Durrer, wife of Robert Durrer, a carpenter, living at 1741 Howell street, met her death. The malpractice is alleged to have been committed on December 28, 1891, immediately after the birth of a male child, and it is this baby that appears as the plaintiff in the suit for damages. Robert Durrer is the father and guardian ad litem of the baby, John Durrer. The complaint contains most startling allegations. It sets forth that the doctor treated the mother most cruelly and adds that, by reason of his careless, unskilful and violent treatment of her, death resulted and the plaintiff is deprived of the life, nurture, care and training of its mother, to its great loss.
“The plaintiff is deprived of the life, nurture, care and training of its mother, to its great loss.”
Medical malpractice suits were rare and highly sensational in 1890s Seattle, often serving as the only public recourse for families devastated by substandard care. Today, while legal protections for patients have evolved, the high costs of both birth and litigation remain a heavy burden for working-class families like the Durrers.
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