Crile Claims

Burned blackly into medical annals is the fire in Surgeon George Washington Crile's .Cleveland Clinic (TIME, May 27, 1929). The fire occurred in a basement room wherein were stored x-ray films. The burning films emitted fumes (carbon monoxide and nitrogen tetroxide) which killed scores of Dr. Crile's patients, doctors and employes on the spot. Other scores died during the following weeks. Deaths eventually totalled 125.

Last week a Cleveland court wrote the end of Dr. Crile's black chapter. Six injured persons and the families of 63 dead ones had sued the Cleveland Clinic Foundation for a total of more than $1,500,000. About 200 dependents, widows, widowers, and children were represented. Neither the Cleveland Clinic nor Surgeon Crile had so much money to disburse. Dr. Crile's personal fortune at its peak approximated $2,000,000. Last week it was reputed to be closer to $100,000. The fortune of Mrs. Crile's family, the Cleveland McBrides, has also shrunk. McBride money was largely in textile enterprises.

But neither Dr. Crile's nor his relatives' money was legally touchable through the Clinic. The Cleveland Clinic is a foundation protected by only $30,000 liability insurance. Claimants for damages might easily wreck the institution, but claimants could squeeze no money from empty corridors. Attorney Paul Lamb, astute pleader persuaded the litigants to settle, and the court approved, on a basis which involved the value of life and the cost of dependency in Depression. The $1,500,000 claims were settled for $167,000, of which the Clinic raised $137.000 from its own funds, insurance contributed $30,000. Where a man was husband & father his family received on the average $5,000. Where a wife & mother perished her family got only $2,500. Where there were no dependents, the estate was awarded as low as $750.

Since the fire more and more hospitals have been using non-inflammable x-ray films exclusively.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.