Utter Joseh - Jonathan Nutt - medical - Montgomery InGenWeb Project

‘Squire Stilwell’s court room was entirely inadequate to accommodate the crowd desirous of attending the sessions of the suit of Dr. Utter against Jonathan Nutt for $54, alleged to be due for medical services during the last illness of the defendant’s wife. Half the doctors in town have been about the court room and most of them have been willing witnesses for one side or the other and have “basted” the opposition to the best of their ability. The best of feeling has not prevailed and charges and counter chargers have abounded, the lie being passed by implication if not by word every minute or so.

It appears that several doctors treated Mrs. Nutt and all of them diagnosed her case differently from the others. Utter treated her for gall stones and gave medicine which he claimed relieved her and caused a passage of the stones. When he was discharged these stones were shown to Dr. Ensminger, who pronounced them to be gravel picked up from the streets. He declared that a fraud had been perpetrated and it was largely on this advice that Nutt refused to pay the bill of Mr. Utter. Nutt had one of the professors at the college examine the stones and he concurred in the opinion of Dr. Ensminger, but this latter bit of evidence was not gotten before the jury, the court holding the evidence of a college professor incompetent. The worst side of Nutt’s case was the fact that it was proved that he had made a contract with Utter to treat Mrs. Nutt at $1.50 a visit. Arguments began Thursday morning and were red hot in character. The principals were both roundly denounced by opposing counsel and the doctors who had testified were roasted to a seal brown. There was no lack of excitement at any stage of the proceedings. At about 3 o’clock the case went to the jury.