## Facts

- Dr. Martin J. Coyne, a physician and surgeon, was injured when William T. Campbell’s car struck Coyne’s automobile from the rear on July 5, 1957.
- Coyne sustained a “whiplash” injury and received medical treatment, physiotherapy, X-rays, consultations, nursing care, and hospital-related services.
- The services were furnished to Coyne without charge by professional colleagues and through access to facilities; no bills were rendered.
- Coyne had no present legal obligation to pay for the medical and nursing services, which were treated as gratuitous.
- Coyne sought to prove at trial the reasonable value of the free medical and nursing services (approximately $2,235) as special damages in his negligence action.
- The trial court excluded evidence of the value of the gratuitous services and did not submit that item of damages to the jury.
- The Appellate Division affirmed, and Coyne appealed to the New York Court of Appeals.

## Issues

1. Whether a personal-injury plaintiff may recover, as compensatory damages, the reasonable value of medical and nursing services furnished gratuitously when the plaintiff neither paid for them nor incurred a legal obligation to pay.
2. Whether gratuitous medical care should be treated like a collateral-source benefit such that the tortfeasor cannot obtain a reduction in liability because third parties provided assistance.

## Decision

- The Court of Appeals affirmed the judgment for the defendant on the damages ruling.
- The court held that the reasonable value of medical and nursing services furnished gratuitously is not a recoverable element of compensatory damages when the plaintiff has paid nothing and has no legal obligation to pay.
- The court rejected treating purely gratuitous services as a collateral source comparable to benefits purchased or earned by the plaintiff.
- A concurrence agreed with the result, reasoning that awarding such damages would grant the plaintiff “something for nothing.”
- A dissent would have allowed recovery of the reasonable value of necessary services to prevent the tortfeasor from benefiting from third-party generosity.

## Legal Principles

- Compensatory damages in negligence aim to reimburse the plaintiff for actual pecuniary loss; an item of damages generally requires payment or a legally enforceable obligation to pay.
- The collateral-source rule does not extend to services conferred as a pure gratuity where the plaintiff made no contribution and incurred no corresponding legal debt.
- A plaintiff’s moral desire to repay benefactors does not create a compensable legal loss recoverable from the tortfeasor.
- Allowing recovery for gratuitous services risks converting compensation into an award unrelated to the plaintiff’s financial loss and invites speculative valuation disputes.

## Conclusion

The court limited recoverable special damages for medical and nursing care to amounts the plaintiff paid or was legally bound to pay, holding that the reasonable value of gratuitously provided treatment is not recoverable in a negligence action.


Coyne v. Campbell, 11 N.Y.2d 372, 183 N.E.2d 891 (N.Y. 1962)