Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 39, Number 69, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 May 1907 — A Christian Science Decision. [ARTICLE]

A Christian Science Decision.

A novel and interesting decision was recently handed down by the Supreme Court of the State of Texas. The case was that of a lady who had sued the Fort Worth and Denver City Railway Company for damages 3n account of physical and mental suffering in being expelled from one of the defendant’s passenger trains. The lady in question was a member of the Christian Science cult, and the attorney for the defendant endeavored to establish this fact daring the trial, explaining that the plaintiff would not take medicine, and that it was her belief that she suffered only when she thought she suffered, and it was only a question with her whether she suffered or did not, and that as a Christian Scientist “she lived in a spiritual plane above mental and' physical sufferings; that it was an article of her faith that there was no such thing as mental or physical suffering, and that she did not actually suffer.” The court would not permit tha attorney to bring out this point, and a verdict was given for the plaintiff. On appeal the Supreme Court reversed the decision, holding that it was an error not to allow the desired testimony to be introduced, since it was pertinent to the main and essential issue in the case, to wit, the mental and physical suffering of the plaintiff. This decision suggests a new line of cross-examination in damage suits where the plaintiff is a believer in Christian Science.