Fein v. Kahan

This is a medical malpractice action in which the plaintiff2 sued the defendant doctor for his failure to diagnose breast cancer. The case was tried to a jury. In answer to special questions, the jury found that the defendant was negligent, but that such negligence was not the proximate cause of the injuries.

The plaintiff appeals, arguing that the judge’s instructions to the jury were defective because he failed to instruct the jury as to the meaning of proximate cause. Countering, the defendant, without stressing the adequacy of the instructions as a whole, claims that the plaintiff failed…