Subject to the various statutory enactments, every physician or surgeon, or any one who chooses to act as such, is entitled to a reasonable reward for his services and for his medicines. If there was no express promise to pay when the services were requested, the law implies one: the broad principle being, that when a person has bestowed his skill and labor for the benefit of another, at his request, and no agreement is made in respect to them, the law raises an implied promise to pay such compensation as the person performing the service deserved to have; and when there is no statutory or other restraint upon the remedy, an action lies on such promise [18]. The amount, unless settled by law, is a question for the jury, and in settling that, the eminence of the practitioner, the wealth of the patient, the delicacy and difficulty of the operation, as well as the time and care expended, are to be considered [19].
The law, as a rule, sets no limitation to fees, provided they be reasonable. Within this rule a practitioner is allowed discretionary powers and may charge more or less according to his own estimate of the value of his services. No one will pretend to assert that all services are of equal value, and no one will claim that those who can |19| render them the most skilfully should receive only the same reward as those who can render them the least so. A medical man of great eminence may be considered reasonably entitled to a larger recompense than one who has not equal practice, after it has become publicly understood that he expects a larger fee, inasmuch as the party applying to him must be taken to have employed him with a knowledge of this circumstance [20]. But doctors must not be unreasonable in their charges; as Lord Kenyon remarked, “Though professional men are entitled to a fair and liberal compensation for their assistance, there are certain claims which they affect to set up, which if unreasonable or improper, it is for the jury to control” [21]. That a patient is a millionaire does not justify an extortionate charge. The French rule is to consider the gravity of the disease as well as the fortune and position of the patient in settling the remuneration of a physician [22].