Lucas v. Maine Com'n of Pharmacy

• Decision Date: 17 February 1984
• Citation: 472 A.2d 904
• Parties: 16 Ed. Law Rep. 841 Charles P. LUCAS v. MAINE COMMISSION OF PHARMACY.
• Court: Maine Supreme Court

Page 904

472 A.2d 904

16 Ed. Law Rep. 841

Charles P. LUCAS v. MAINE COMMISSION OF PHARMACY.

Supreme Judicial Court of Maine.

Argued Nov. 23, 1983.

Decided Feb. 17, 1984.

Bowie & Parker, Paulette P. Parker (orally), Portland, for plaintiff.

James E. Tierney, Atty. Gen., Linda M. Pistner, Asst. Atty. Gen. (orally), Augusta, for defendant.

Before McKUSICK, C.J., and NICHOLS, ROBERTS, VIOLETTE, GLASSMAN and SCOLNIK, JJ.

McKUSICK, Chief Justice.

Charles Lucas, a registered pharmacist in Massachusetts, applied to the Maine Commission of Pharmacy ¹ ("Commission") for registration to practice his profession in Maine under the reciprocity provision of 32 M.R.S.A. § 2902 (Supp.1983-1984). ² By the terms of that section, reciprocal registration in Maine is available to Massachusetts pharmacists only if "such other state shall require a degree of competency equal to that required of applicants of this State." The Commission found that Massachusetts did not require as high a degree of competency for original applicants as does Maine, and for that reason, denied Lucas's application. Lucas sought direct judicial review in the Superior Court (Kennebec County), which affirmed. On his appeal to this court, we also in effect affirm the Commission's decision.

From 1968 to 1973 Lucas attended the Hampden College of Pharmacy, located in Willimanset, Massachusetts, from which he received a Bachelor of Science degree in pharmacy. The Hampden College of Pharmacy is not accredited by the American Council on Pharmaceutical Education (ACOPE). After a satisfactory performance on national and state pharmacy examinations, Lucas in 1973 was registered to practice pharmacy in Massachusetts, ³ and since that time he has worked as a pharmacist in a drug store and a hospital in that state. In 1976 Lucas enrolled in a graduate therapeutics program at the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy, which conferred its Master of Pharmacy degree upon him in 1980. Although ACOPE has accredited the bachelor's program at the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy, ACOPE has not accredited any masters programs there or elsewhere.

Following Lucas's filing on December 2, 1981, of his application for reciprocal registration in Maine, the Commission held a public hearing on April 6, 1982. On October 12, 1982, the Commission issued an extensive opinion in letter form denying Lucas's application. That opinion construed section 2902 to require any applicant for original licensure in Maine to hold a degree of Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy from an institution accredited by ACOPE. Since Massachusetts had licensed Lucas as a pharmacist, even though he did not have a bachelor's degree from an ACOPE-accredited school, the Commission concluded that "the State of Massachusetts [does not] require 'a degree of competency equal to that required of applicants in this State' as required by § 2902." (Emphasis in original) The Commission also determined that Lucas's graduate degree from the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy

is not relevant to the determination of whether your licensure in ... Massachusetts required a degree of competency equal to that required of applicants in Maine for the following reasons:

a. Although the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy Bachelor degree programs are both accredited by the American Council on Pharmaceutical Education and approved by the [Maine] Commission of Pharmacy, graduate degree programs are neither accredited by the American Council nor approved by the Commission.

b. The educational qualifications required of Maine applicants under § 2902 relate solely to Bachelor degrees and not to graduate degrees.

c. Successful completion of a masters' degree program does not ensure a degree of competency equal to that of a Bachelor's degree from an accredited and approved school of pharmacy. Such a Bachelor's degree program is designed to ensure general competency in the profession of pharmacy whereas a masters' degree program is designed to add to that basic general competency and may be specialized in nature.

Pursuant to the Administrative Procedure Act, 5 M.R.S.A. §§ 11001-11008 (1979 & Supp.1983-1984), and Rules of Civil Procedure, Lucas sought Superior Court review of the Commission's action. He argued that the Commission misinterpreted the educational background required for reciprocal registration under section 2902 and that the legislature had unconstitutionally delegated to ACOPE the task of accrediting pharmacy schools. On April 26, 1983, the Superior Court denied Lucas's appeal, rejecting both his statutory and his constitutional arguments.

I. Construction and Application of Reciprocity Provisions of Section 2902

On appeal to this court Lucas first argues that his registration as a Massachusetts pharmacist satisfies the requirements for reciprocal registration under section 2902. He challenges the Commission's finding that since Massachusetts licensed him even though he did not have a bachelor's degree from an accredited pharmacy school, that state does not "require a degree of competency equal to that required of applicants of this State." Lucas attacks the Commission's implicit holding that section 2902 requires any applicant for reciprocal licensure to hold a bachelor's degree from an accredited school.

An administrative agency's interpretation of a statute administered by it is entitled to "great deference." See Maine Human Rights Commission v. Local 1361, AFL-CIO, 383 A.2d 369, 378 (Me.1978). The Commission's construction of the reciprocal registration provisions of section 2902 will be upheld unless that section plainly compels a contrary result.

Underlying the Commission's construction of the reciprocal registration provision is the Commission's consistent construction of the balance of section 2902 to require an applicant for original licensure in Maine to have a bachelor's degree in pharmacy from a school accredited by ACOPE. That strikes us as not only a reasonable interpretation, but also the most likely one, when the fourth and the last sentences of section 2902 are read together. The last sentence requires every original applicant to have a bachelor's degree in pharmacy and the fourth sentence requires him to have graduated from an ACOPE-accredited school. See n. 2 above. The language and purpose of section 2902 support, rather than contradict, the Commission's construction of Maine's educational requirement for original registration.

The second step in reaching the Commission's construction of the reciprocal registration provision is its decision that another state that for its original licensure does not require a bachelor's degree from an accredited pharmacy school does not, within the terms of section 2902, "require a degree of competency equal to that required of [original] applicants" in Maine. Massachusetts is such a state because, as we know from the facts of the case at bar, the bachelor graduates of at least one in-state pharmacy school that is unaccredited (i.e., Hampden College of Pharmacy) qualify there to be registered as pharmacists. We cannot say that the Commission was unreasonable in deciding that this difference demonstrates that Massachusetts is satisfied with a lower degree of competency for original applicants than is Maine. Although the reference in section 2902 to "degree of competency" includes more than educational attainments, the Commission was warranted in using educational requirements as one critical measure to compare the competency required for original pharmacist registration in Maine and Massachusetts. See Liggett Co. v. Baldridge, 278 U.S. 105, 114-15, 49 S.Ct. 57, 60, 73 L.Ed. 204 (1928) (Holmes, J., dissenting), quoted with approval in North Dakota State Board of Pharmacy v Snyder's Drug Stores, Inc., 414 U.S. 156, 166, 94 S.Ct. 407, 414, 38 L.Ed.2d 379 (1973); Dent v. West Virginia, 129 U.S. 114, 122-23, 9 S.Ct. 231, 233-34, 32 L.Ed. 623 (1889). In Ditullio v. State Board of Examiners of Psychologists, 387 A.2d 757 (Me.1978), this court upheld the constitutionality of a statutory requirement that any psychologist seeking either original or reciprocal licensure in Maine must possess a doctoral degree in psychology or a closely allied field. The Commission of Pharmacy had ample reason to believe that accreditation provides sufficient guarantees of higher educational quality to justify the conclusion that a state licensing graduates of unaccredited pharmacy schools applies a lower standard of competency than does Maine. The Supreme Court has said that "the fact that an applicant ... holds a diploma from a reputable dental college has a direct and substantial relation to his qualification to practice dentistry." Graves v. Minnesota, 272 U.S. 425, 428, 47 S.Ct. 122, 123, 71 L.Ed. 331 (1926). Paying appropriate deference to the administrative tribunal that is charged with administering section 2902, we find no basis upon which a court may reject its construction of the provision for reciprocal registration of pharmacists.

Lucas misconceives the requirements of section 2902 in arguing that his graduate degree and other experience give him the equivalent of the degree of competency required of original Maine applicants. Section 2902 speaks not in terms of a specific applicant's qualifications but, rather, in terms of the minimum standards imposed upon all applicants by the state in which he obtained his original licensure. The fact that Lucas's own personal qualifications may in fact exceed the minimum required for registration in Massachusetts is of no avail.

The Commission went further than was required by section 2902 and considered Lucas's own qualifications, despite the fact that he was registered in a state with less demanding requirements for entry to the profession. The Commission, whose expertise on matters of pharmaceutical education far exceeds that of members of the judiciary, determined that a specialized graduate program is no substitute for the general education...