Person:James Connerty (5)

J. Smyth Carter's "The Story of Dundas", 1905, p. 377, lists Dr. Connerty of Winchester Village, who by 1905 had relocated to Smiths Falls.

"In his activities as a physician in the late 1800s, he encountered a lawsuit (one of the first ever) from a patient, which eventually resulted in the creation of the Canadian Medical Protective Association in 1901. ... ... We have quite limited information on Dr. Conerty, other than to know from old Canadian Medical Association records of 1899, that Dr. Conerty's faced a lawsuit from a family who was unhappy with the care their son received in setting a broken arm, which had failed to heal properly. The family decided felt they should not pay for the medical treatment for their son. What became clear in subsequent investigations, was that the family didn't follow the doctor's orders in follow-up treatments, and the arm didn't set and heal properly.

In those days most families had a hard time paying the local doctor, and many complained about the care in an attempt to dodge paying their bill.

Dr. Conerty spent much of his own funds arguing the case in court, and he ultimately secured the support of his peers in funding the case, which is how the Canadian Medical Protective Association came to be. At the end of the day, Dr. Conerty couldn't claim back any costs from the plaintiffs, because in the words of the court, they were defined as 'worthless'. Hence the fund to help doctors was begun."