Document ZnaQ88E3Y3XGGeZ83Db11aBw7

FILE NAME: Saranac 7th Symposium (SSY) DATE: 1952 DOC#: SSY035 DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION: Transcript of Presentation by Mr. Sabourin TAEEH 7B0M PJfflt 65* S i X R t . M fxxm . * Nr. Oalrm u l Nadaa - Madsanisells tad Doctor Torvald, Ifealwrs of the Sjapodoa, Ladies and Oeatleaen t Ted Veters has asked m t o t e u brief as possible. I eight skip a fee parts of the notes I hare, bat In an effort at the esse tine not to break the eoetinaitgr that Z thoeght Z should have. Before eonehlng these notes In final fora, I hare had the prirelege of taking recognition of the texts of both ajr predeeeeeon oa this aornlng's program, Doctor Brcoi and Boetor Bamako* shcald enable mm, before dieoaselcm tine, to address yon without possibly repeating as sstefc of i&at has elrosdy been stated. 1?I4 i I i *I 1 ! ! ! i 1 t . i s ' ipw .65.81 It oeema to mo, I submit to you, that & striking feature of compensation cases as a whole, whether contro verted or not, is their importance in the administration of justice at large and the major part they thus play in organired society* I would say, without hesitation, that the number of compensation claims filed is greater than the total number of claims or law suits of other nature filed before all of the long works of this combined. This gives you an idea of the tremendous respon sibility constantly resting on the persons who, judges or not, but acting as suhh, members of boards or commissions or insurers, are oalled to decide. Such persons just as thcugh they were sitting in an awkward position, are in fact, the every day ambassadors of law, justice and equity, knocking at so many doors of citizens1 homes for the purpose of dis tributing justice in the field of compensation, a field of paramcunt Importance to the worker and hi a family, that of hia health and welfare, as It may be effected unlawfully by employment cauaing him injury or disease, The law courts might have, at times, a more solemn character and the subject matter might appear more vital to some litigants, but the scope of responsibilities remains juat as great for these who, in the condensation field, provide that daily bread of Justice to thousands and thou- i sands entitled to satisfaction. The latter, the juries a n d ; I I _________________________________ ______________ _____ ___________ 66 0 . those who act as such, let ua not forget, whether they pre side In regular law courts or not, form part of that august body of nan and women who are the last ones to fall on the ramparts of freedom fighting to keep together this essen- f*brle of society, that of law and order* When this body of men and women will hare gone, before whom anyone may hawe a fair hearing, society will have crumbled and that statue which stands in the Harbor of New York will no longer be heralding its message of liberty and justice to this new world* In this eminent realm of rendering justice, doe* tors ana lawyers Join to participate and assist the courts, the boards, and to present the facts in the light of the lai t eduee proper evidence upon rttich to decide and whilst It easy to determine responsibility end the measure of redress In a great number of cases of unoantrovertad char* actor, such la not the case in the field or controverted or debatable claims* In this latter category, come many a case wherein view of its nature or controverted aspect, is destined to act as beacon of orientationibr a considerable number of cases of like character in the future. The need of sueh leading or so-called test cases will always exist. The i i contrary would reflect an absence of evolution and protest ! would reflect rathe' stagnation in science, in art, in novels, and bo forth. Without properly controverted and diaputed issues,, particularly in matter* invoking principal*, our court* of justice, to whatever appellation they may belong, would aoon be tainted with biaa, prejudice, become arbitrary. Whilst In compensation, celerity la of the essence in met ing out juatle* to a vast number of men Justly eager for an early settlement, yet the need of that oelerity must not Impede the preparation and presentation of proper evidence for a just decision. We have heard my predecessor this morning stress ing the importance of fact-finding. 1 Join in that, that fact-finding needs close elaboration, need* a close collab oration between the attorney and the expert witness, close collaboration In the preparation of evidence, examination and cross-exsLmlnation included* We heard last year at Mellon Institute, the diatinguished charmer. of today, the Honorable Mary Donlon, also Doctor Wright, Doctor Burnell, deplore the hardships which necessarily often are encountered In the administra tion of compensation matters, and also the lack at times of or oT preparedness In the discharge of their dut ies, of those persons destined to deliver expert evidence. The field of educing ordinary evidence as to bas ic facts la well known to you and I shall not labor on that 662. point. The field of expert evidence before a gathering of this type, tight call for some qualifications. The expert witness does not require only full knowledge of the facte available, a point which is detected often. The expert must realise that his very title confers upon hit a degree of authority and respect which must flow from his advanced | studies in the field he is to testify to, and from consid erable enough experience therein. The expert should be expected to have taken per- eonal connotation of the material of the experts to come under discussion. Jua omission in that field of verificatios. slight well lead to an irreparable error which might effect the course of the whole case. Before I entered this field of compensation some seventeen years ago, I ran aoross one of the very good ballistic experts of the continent who had eons to us in an attempted murder case. The defense of the man, a war hero of the first war, involved a revolver which contained a dented barrel, and at the time of the examine- tion of the barrel, the dented shell, it was proven clearly, waa situated to the right-hand side of the cannon. The in- *1 stance of the crown and the expert as to the presence of that dented shell on the right side of the cannon proved j i t be the liberation because - the liberation cause of the j !accused, as this revolver, a Smith and * g anti-clockwise, where the dented shell Wesson, was should have revolving . ! been ----- ------- - ' 1 ; ; \ , , j . j j , ; : ; J 1 ; | - ! ; ;i found at the left hand side of the cannon. The expert merely had failed to verify the type of the gun. All of the barrel spaces acre filled with shells actually and that only shell, the dented shell, wae the 1ncrladnating one. In a pathological debate which, for some five day*, occupied one of our boards, some two years ago, ex perts on both sides realised when the case was under advlsej nent, that the material submitted to them for analysis and opinion had not been collected all from the section under discussion. The absence of contaot of experts before and after hearing explained this In part. All were diametrically opposed views, made known before and after hearing, and It should have suggested, it seems, the microscopic and micro* seopie examination of the parts whloh could have easily best, maes available. Errors such as this should not exist. Tbej are Just done through lack of dillgenoe In a field which is elementary and which Is a cause of error with experts as woll with ordinary witnesses. I have dene an error of that kind myself, Chairman, when I was In McGill, I was singing, or was ex pected to sing at the wedding of a friend of mine and had not verified the exact address of the church, and I sang throughout the sermon at a wedding where no song was expect ed at all,and everybody was turning and looking at me. What surprised me most was that I Joined my friends for their 5M * celebration after the sermon - after the ceremony, and my friend congratulated me, nevertheless, upon the very good singing produced at hie wedding* It reminds me, too, that lack of verification, sometimes of the lack of knowledge of an address in a par ticular case. There was a funeral directors school in Toronto, and a young man had attended the school for a month or two and came back home to the country, and his father saidi "Well, my lad, you know, when you went to Toronto te go to that special oourse of embalming and conducting fun erals and so on", he said, "I was a little bit surprised, he said, "I should think it's very dull, or is it not*T Well, the lad eaid, "Oh, dad, no, i t 's very nice*. Be eaid, "I enjoyed it a lot". He said, "You know, every body there ie kind of quiet, there ie soft waxaic everywhere you go, and my boss always in striped trousers, morning clothes and gloves and everything ie diacreetj we never raise our voices, and everything is just wonderful, flowers all the time*. "Yeah", but he said, "isn't there anything unpleasant or something at least happening at sometimes, some dining, some moving around, ping pokg, things like thal The fellow's dad wanted to hear something like this, and the hoy eaid, "well, 3a at Saturday, wo get a telephone call, said Royal York Hotel, double suicide case, so I called the lads to get the Cadillac out, beautiful j black Cadillac, dad, and we drove very soft, slow speed to the Royal York Hotel", and he said, "My toss Just went up to the counter and everybody expected him, he Just had to show his card and he asked about the double suicide case an*, the manager said Suite 307. Of course, we went up. I was eager to go In and I went to the door and pressed the but toil and no answer and pressed again and no answer, eo I opened the door and there what do we find, on this warm day* Here there was the body of a lady with little clothes on, very well constituted, good looking person, and there she was, dead, dead, dead, and a few little feet distant from that person, the body of a young man, strong fellow, curly hair, standing on his baok, Juet dead, dead, dead. And the boss said, ,That,s traglo*, but I thought you usually start feel*1 lng the nose, to see If it isn't resistant, so I told that to the boas and he said, 'That's nothing, my lad, that's rigor martia'. He said there's a very easy way to dispose of that. He said - well, his boss was a very good golfer and without taking the ball at all, he Just takes the golf ing stickand he Just teed off very gently, and he said you asked me what happened somteimes. Prom that moment that boy Just woke up and startled finding the room in a shambled, but no more startled than we were when we looked j at the number. We were in the wrong room". ! Laws, as long as they are evolved by humans, will' nr be Ideal, nor will their application be, but let want the law to be well known, for the worker, also to know it well. Our lavs are Tory generally good, and the law wii:. seldom be defeated which the Industrialist and the worker, the doctor and the lawyer, and the Judges, will know well. The expert must have persuasive ability. He must take to the field and look for actual training practioe. In court and before potential bodies, to hare the Issues properly expressed and accurately, he must be familiar with of the aspects under discussion, and must express them in as simple language as possible, I will cut as muoh as I can. I have attended some of the international meetings here and abroad, but come into the very serious side of thin symposium which I think is most impressive, I am glad to be able to say, and this is the opinion expressed yesterday, vhioh dootors who attended with ms the symposium in Europe, and the Continent here, some of whom I see here, such as Doctor Vidal, who ie chairman of our Canadian Tuberculosis Association, that no gathering of specialists in this pul monary industrial field has done as much constructive work in such an outspoken manner as that which has been evidenced at this symposium, and I am glad to say tnis in xhe pres ence of Doctor Lanza, of Doctor Greenburg, Doctor Merewether who represents England, Doctor Lanza and others who repre- ! I sent the United States on this Industrial Medicine Bot. d. ' I an happy to ? th la In the p r e s .n o . of a l l the d is ti n g u i s h e d a c l a n t l a t a who a r e h are to d a y , and In c lo s in g ,, remarks on th la l a s t day o f the symposium, I should Ilk a to pay p a r t i c u l a r h o m ^a to a l l th o se who work In s l l . n o a , u n s e l f i s h l y , a l l th o se who h a y . been c o a ln g h e r . to d a y , a l l th o s e who h a . p a r t i c u l a r l y been h e r . f o r aom. y e a r s , t o th o se who cam . h e r . In t h e l a s t th r e e q u a r t e r s o f a c e n tu ry s in e . D octor Trudeau, t h a t u n s e lfis h d o cto r and a ch o lar founded t h i s i n s t i t u t i o n , t o a l l th o s e who h a y . com. h e r . to work and t o l l , and t o a l l t h o s e who h a y . h elp ed them t o come and to rem ain h e r e , sometimes to work In g l o r y , b u t g lo ry and m isery a lo n e , b u t In r e c o g n i ti o n . * who h a y . w orked I n t h e i r l a b . and keep on working f o r th a b etterm en t o f th la world In th a t e te rn a l q u est fo r tha ca n s- o f d e a th end o f th e a l l . r l a t l o n o f p a i n , guide them h e r . though th e y w ere, by th e hn>d o f Ood, r ig h t In the c e n te r o f th e Id lro n d a ck s where w. fin d n a tu re unmatched In l t a b e a u ty , I pay homage to them f o r th ey a r e o f th o se who keep on working and t o llin g u n t i l th e ir hnada weary and th e ir m ind, t l r a , and such a t was th e case o f D octor G ardner, u n t i l th e y drop t h e ir t o o l , by the way, f o r th e ir brow to s e t t l e in th e e te r n a l sp len d o r of Day, and f o r which h u - j inanity w i l l .w a r be g r a t e f u l . Thank y o u . (A p p la u se ). BY MISS DONLOh* Thank you, Mr. Sabourin, and especially for that