Eclectic State Medical Board v. Beatty

• Decision Date: 08 December 1941
• Docket Number: 4-6527
• Parties: ECLECTIC STATE MEDICAL BOARD v. BEATTY
• Court: Arkansas Supreme Court

156 S.W.2d 246

203 Ark. 294

ECLECTIC STATE MEDICAL BOARD v. BEATTY

4-6527

Supreme Court of Arkansas

December 8, 1941

Appeal from Pulaski Chancery Court; Frank H. Dodge, Chancellor reversed.

Decree reversed and cause remanded.

Jack Holt, Attorney General, and Jno. P. Streepey, Assistant Attorney General, for appellant.

W R. Donham, for appellee.

OPINION

GREENHAW, J.

This is an appeal from a decree of the Pulaski chancery court entered on June 3, 1941, overruling a demurrer of the appellant to the complaint of the appellee, and making permanent a temporary restraining order granted to appellee against the appellant on June 26, 1939, the day the complaint was filed. The complaint herein, to which the demurrer was filed by the attorney general in July, 1939, on behalf of appellant, sought to enjoin the appellant from holding a hearing upon a complaint filed with appellant on November 3 1938, to revoke the license to practice medicine and surgery theretofore issued by said board to appellee.

The pertinent provisions of the complaint, filed with the Eclectic State Modical Board against the appellee, read as follows:

"That on or about the 9th day of February, 1929, Orville Lentz Beatty was licensed by the Eclectic State Medical Board to practice medicine and surgery in the state of Arkansas; that the said Orville Lentz Beatty falsely represented to said board that he had attended the Kansas City College of Medicine and Surgery, Kansas City, Missouri, during the school years of 1923 to 1926, inclusive; that said diploma was illegally and fraudulently obtained, and that said license or certificate issued to Orville Lentz Beatty by said board was obtained by fraud and deception constituting a ground for revoking said license or certificate under § 8242, Crawford & Moses' Digest of the statutes of Arkansas (§ 10740 of Pope's Digest of the statutes of Arkansas).

"Wherefore the complainants respectfully request that the said Orville Lentz Beatty be given a hearing before the Eclectic State Medical Board of the state of Arkansas, at such time and place as the board may designate; that said complainants be given an opportunity to appear and present the above charges, and a just hearing be had, and that the certificate or license heretofore issued to Orville Lentz Beatty to practice medicine and surgery in the state of Arkansas be revoked or canceled by the Eclectic State Medical Board of the state of Arkansas."

Thereafter a copy of said complaint was given to the appellee, and a final notice was given to him that a hearing thereon would be held before the board upon said complaint at 9 o'clock on July 6, 1939. About ten days before the date of said hearing, the appellee filed this suit against the appellant, which resulted in the temporary restraining order and ultimately the decree making the temporary restraining order permanent, after the court overruled the general demurrer and appellant refused to plead further.

The legislature in 1903 provided for the creation of the Eclectic State Medical Board and other medical boards. The law, as amended, will be found in Pope's Digest of the statutes of Arkansas, §§ 10732-10748, inclusive. The pertinent parts of §§ 10739 and 10740 read as follows:

Section 10739. ". . . The applicant shall present to the board satisfactory evidence of graduation from a reputable medical school, and a school shall be considered reputable within the meaning of this act whose entrance requirements and course of instruction are as high as those adopted by the better class of medical schools of the United States. . . ."

Section 10740. "The boards may refuse to grant or may revoke a license for the following causes, to-wit: . . . (e) The representation to the board of any license, certificate or diploma which was illegally or fraudulently obtained, or the practice of fraud or deception in passing the examination. . . ."

The appellee, in his complaint seeking the injunction, raised a number of questions. He alleged that the board had no right to revoke appellee's license; that appellee was graduated in June, 1928, from the American Medical University of Kansas City, Missouri, which was recognized and approved and in good standing as a medical school by the Arkansas Eclectic Medical Board when it issued to appellee his license to practice in Arkansas on February 9, 1929, after he had taken a written examination given him by said board; that said board was then fully acquainted with the diploma from said school, and was satisfied with his qualifications and the requirements of said school; that he had kept his dues paid and said license was in full force and effect; that he had held district offices in certain medical associations, and was at the time chief of staff of the Baker Hospital at Eureka Springs, Arkansas; that the law, under which the charges were preferred against him, was so vague, indefinite and uncertain as to render it invalid; that if it should be held to be valid, the charges themselves were so vague and indefinite as not to give proper notice and information for him properly to prepare his defense; that the charges against him did not come within the provision of the law under which they were filed, and that they would not authorize the board to revoke his license; that in acting upon the charges as filed the board would be exceeding its lawful jurisdiction; that the personnel of the present board was not the same as the board which licensed him more than nine years before, and that the present board had no right to review or revoke the acts of the former board; that some members of the present board were prejudiced against him and that the board was estopped by laches from revoking his license.

Appellee also alleged that: "In the practice of his profession he was exercising the rights, privileges and immunities secured to him by art. 14 of the amendments to the constitution of the United States, which provides: 'No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or impunities of the citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty or property without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the law.'"

The appellee contends that by its general demurrer the appellant admitted the truth of the allegations of his complaint, and, the facts being taken as true, appellant is in no position to claim that it has any right or legal authority to revoke his license. We think the effect of the demurrer in this case was to admit the truth of well pleaded facts only for the purpose for which the demurrer was filed in the chancery court.

The appellant contends that the chancery court had no jurisdiction in this matter under the law and facts set out in the complaint filed with appellant board...