Dent v. State of West Virginia
Decision Date | 14 January 1889 |
Citation | 129 U.S. 114,9 S.Ct. 231,32 L.Ed. 623 |
Parties | DENT v. STATE OF WEST VIRGINIA |
Court | U.S. Supreme Court |
This case comes from the supreme court of appeals of West Virginia.It involves the validity of the statute of that state which requires every practitioner of medicine in it to obtain a certificate from the state board of health that he is a graduate of a reputable medical college in the school of medicine to which he belongs; or that he has practiced medicine in the state continously for the period of 10 years prior to the 8th day of March, 1881; or that he has been found, upon examination by the board, to be qualified to practice medicine in all its departments; and makes the practice of, or the attempt by any person to practice, medicine, surgery, or obstetrics in the state without such certificate, unless called from another state to treat a particular case, a misdemeanor punishable by fine or imprisonment, or both, in the discretion of the court.The statute in question is found in sections 9and15 of an act of the state, c. 93, passed March 15, 1882, amending a chapter of its Code concerning the public health.St. 1882, pp. 245, 246, 248.These sections are as follows:
Under this statute, the plaintiff in error was indicted in the state circuit court of Preston county, W. Va., for unlawfully engaging in the practice of medicine in that state in June, 1882, without a diploma, certificate, or license therefor, as there required; not being a physician or surgeon called from another state to treat a particular case, or to perform a particular surgical operation.To this indictment the defendant pleaded not guilty, and, a jury having been called, the state by its prosecuting attorney, and the defendant by his attorney, agreed upon the following statement of facts, namely: These were all the facts in the case.Upon them the jury found the defendant guilty, and thereupon he moved an arrest of judgment on the ground that the act of the legislature was unconstitutional and void so far as it interfered with his vested right in relation to the practice of medicine, which motion was overruled, and to the ruling an exception was taken.The court thereupon sentenced the defendant to pay a fine of $50 and the costs of the proceedings.The case being taken on writ of error to the supreme court of appeals of the state, the judgment was affirmed, and to review this judgment the case is brought here.
M. H. Dent, for plaintiff in error.
[Argument of Counsel from pages 118-120 intentionally omitted]Alfred Caldwell, for defendant in error.
Mr. Justice FIELD, after stating the facts as above, delivered the opinion of the court.
Whether the indictment upon which the plaintiff in error was tried and found guilty is open to objection for want of sufficient certainty in its averments is a question which does not appear to have been raised either on the trial or before the supreme court of the state.The presiding justice of the latter court, in its opinion, states that the counsel for the defendant expressly waived all objections to defects in form or substance of the indictment, and based his claim for a review of the judgment on the ground that the statute of West Virginia is unconstitutional and void.The unconstitutionality asserted consists in its alleged conflict with the clause of the fourteenth amendment which declares that no state shall deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law; the denial to the defendant of the right to practice his profession without the certificate required constituting the deprivation of his vested right and estate in his profession, which he had previously acquired.
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