Lynch v. Kathmann
| Decision Date | 25 June 1917 |
| Docket Number | No. 31060.,31060. |
| Citation | 163 N.W. 408,180 Iowa 607 |
| Parties | LYNCH v. KATHMANN ET AL. |
| Court | Iowa Supreme Court |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
Appeal from District Court, Carroll County; E. G. Albert, Judge.
Action to recover on an account for medical services. Defendants plead that plaintiff had failed to record his certificate in the office of the county recorder. Judgment for defendants for costs. Plaintiff appeals. Affirmed.Douglas Rogers, of Manning, and Reynolds & Meyers, of Carroll, for appellant.
L. H. Salinger, of Carroll, for appellees.
Plaintiff alleges in his petition that he is a regularly qualified, licensed, and practicing physician and surgeon in Carroll county, Iowa, and that during the time between September 7, 1913, and December 29, 1914, he rendered professional services to the defendants of the reasonable value of $361, and asks judgment therefor. The defendants answered in two counts, admitting that plaintiff rendered services, and in count 2 of his answer pleaded as a special defense that, notwithstanding plaintiff was a regularly licensed physician and surgeon, he had not caused his certificate to be recorded in the office of the county recorder of Carroll county as required by section 2577 of the Code, and that he cannot maintain the action.
Plaintiff demurred to count 2 of defendant's answer upon the ground that the facts stated did not constitute a defense to plaintiff's petition. The demurrer was overruled, and plaintiff filed a reply in substance alleging that the state board of medical examiners of the state of Iowa, after due examination, issued to plaintiff a certificate authorizing him to practice as a physician and surgeon in the state of Iowa, which, on the 2d day of August, 1911, he caused to be recorded in the office of the clerk of the district court of Carroll county, Iowa, in a book in said office entitled “Register of Physicians and Midwives,” and that said registration was in full compliance with the laws of the state of Iowa with reference to the recording and registering of said certificate, that he was informed by the clerk that said registration was in full compliance with the laws of the state of Iowa with reference to the recording and registering of said certificate, and that he believed and relied on said information.
The defendant demurred to plaintiff's reply upon substantially the same grounds as to his petition. The demurrer was sustained, to which ruling of the court the plaintiff duly excepted. Plaintiff thereupon elected to stand on his pleadings and refused to plead further, whereupon his petition was dismissed and judgment entered in favor of the defendant as above stated.
I. Section 2576 of the Code authorizes the physicians of the state board of health, acting as a board of examiners, to examine condidates for certificates to practice medicine in the state of Iowa, and also to prescribe what examination shall be required of such candidates, and authorizes five members of the board to issue a certificate to such candidates as shall have passed the required examination.
Section 2577 of the Code provides that:
The holder of a certificate issued by the board of examiners “* * * shall, before engaging in the practice of medicine, file the same for record in the office of the recorder in the county in which he resides. * * *”
Section 2580 of the Code, so far as material to this case, is as follows:
“Any person who * * * shall practice medicine, surgery or obstetrics in the state without having first obtained and filed for record the certificate herein required, and who is not embraced in any of the exceptions contained in this chapter, * * * is guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof shall be fined not less than three hundred * * * nor more than five hundred dollars, and costs of prosecution, and shall stand committed to the county jail until such fine is paid.”
All of the states have enacted laws prescribing the qualifications of applicants and the conditions upon which certificates to practice medicine shall be issued to such applicants and regulating the practice of medicine. The constitutionality of such statutes has been tested in various states, but, so far as we are able to find, all reasonable conditions and regulations have been uniformly sustained by the courts.
That the state may determine what acts constitute practice as a physician and may impose conditions on the exercise of that privilege was held in State v. Mosher, 78 Iowa, 321, 43 N. W. 202;State v. Bair, 112 Iowa, 466, 84 N. W. 532, 51 L. R. A. 776;State v. Corwin, 151 Iowa, 420, 131 N. W. 659.
No statutes of this state are assailed upon this appeal, but it is argued on behalf of appellant that a certificate was issued to him by the state board of medical examiners, and that he attempted in good faith to comply with the laws requiring the recording thereof by filing the same for record in the office of the clerk of the district court, and that he believed he had fully complied therewith and was entitled to practice medicine.
The foregoing statutes require the holder of a certificate to practice medicine before engaging in the practice thereof to cause such certificate to be filed for record in the office of the county recorder, and that same be recorded by the county recorder in a book kept for that purpose. The same section requires that the record thereof shall be open for public inspection.
Section 2580 makes it an indictable misdemeanor for any one to engage in the practice of medicine in this state without first having obtained and filed a certificate for record in the office of the county recorder as required by section 2577. The language of the statute is “without having first obtained and filed for record the certificate herein required. * * *”
[1] The obtaining and recording of the certificate are conditions precedent to his right to engage in the practice of medicine. He cannot lawfully do so until he has complied with the laws and regulations enacted by the Legislature of the state for the reguulation of the practice of medicine. The requirements of the statute that, before engaging in the practice of medicine, a certificate must first be obtained and filed by every person attempting to practice medicine in the state of Iowa, are mandatory, and no right exists in favor of any one to so engage in the practice of medicine until he has complied with all the requirements of the statute. Not only are these statutes mandatory in character, but they are founded upon principles of sound public policy. They are not intended to interfere with the right of any person to adopt and follow any lawful vocation which he may choose, but only to require that before engaging to deal with the public in matters of such grave importance as the practice of medicine he shall first satisfy the proper authorities of his qualifications and comply with the conditions required by law to be performed by him before engaging in the practice of this profession.
Statutes prescribing the qualifications for the practice of medicine and regulating the practice thereof are not alone for the protection of the public, but as well for the protection of the members of the medical profession. It affords them protection against the fraudulent schemes and practices of incompetent, dishonest, and designing quacks who seek to impose upon the credulity of the people and thereby tend to destroy the high character and aim of the profession and bring it into disrepute.
It was said by Justice Field in Dent v. State of West Virginia, 129 U. S. 114, 9 Sup. Ct. 231, 32 L. Ed. 623, that:
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