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Abstract
This article contributes to the scant Canadian historical literature on patients suing doctors for malpractice. It examines a lengthy New Brunswick case, Key v. Thomson in which a jury in Saint Andrews granted the largest damage award in a malpractice suit anywhere in British North America/Canada during the 19th century. This contextualized study provides insight into cultural forces affecting the law, shows how individuals navigated legal processes, demonstrates the complexity and nuances of some malpractice disputes, and sheds light on the attitude of the medical profession to efforts of patient-plaintiffs to use the law to keep doctors accountable.Copyright for articles published in this journal is retained by the author(s), with Acadiensis being granted a non-exclusive licence to each and every right in the work throughout the world. After publication of the work, the author(s) shall have the right to self-archive the work and to reprint the work in whole or in part in books authored by or edited by the author(s) without the payment of any fee. In these other formats, however, the author or authors are required to acknowledge the original publication of the work in the pages of the journal. In the case of any requests to reprint the work, Acadiensis will require a standard permission fee -- to be divided equally between the journal and the author. In the event that such requests are received by the author(s), the author(s) shall direct such requests to the journal.