Norton v. Leisering, 1813.
| Decision Date | 30 July 1956 |
| Docket Number | No. 1813.,1813. |
| Citation | 125 A.2d 56 |
| Parties | Claude N. NORTON, Petitioner, v. L. M. LEISERING et al., constituting the Board of Examiners and Registrars of Architects, Respondents. |
| Court | D.C. Court of Appeals |
Ford E. Young, Jr., Washington, D. C., for petitioner.
J. Hampton Baumgartner, Jr., Asst., Corp. Counsel, with whom Vernon E. West, Corp. Counsel, Chester H. Gray, Principal Asst. Corp. Counsel, Milton D. Korman and Richard W. Barton, Asst. Corp. Counsel, were on the brief, for respondents.
Hubert B. Pair, Asst. Corp. Counsel, also entered an appearance for respondents.
Before ROVER, Chief Judge, and HOOD and QUINN, Associate Judges.
Petitioner seeks review of action of the Board of Examiners and Registrars of Architects. His petition alleges that in 1925 the Board issued him a certificate of registration and that his certificate was revoked by the Board in December 1952. He claims that the action of the Board was arbitrary and unreasonable. The Board challenges the jurisdiction of this court to review its action. This requires determination of what action of the Board is reviewable by this court and also what in fact was the action of the Board in this case.
The Act of August 31, 1954, gave this court exclusive jurisdiction to review certain actions of certain administrative agencies of the District of Columbia. With respect to the Board of Examiners and Registrars of Architects the Act gave us power to review "any decision of the Board * * * annulling or revoking a certificate to practice architecture under the provisions of the Act of December 13, 1924, * * as amended."1 We have no power of review other than that expressly conferred by the statute and we think it is plain that the only decisions of the Board reviewable by us are those which annul or revoke a certificate.2
While the petitioner alleges that his certificate was revoked in 1952 (apparently he refers to action of the Board in December 1950 instead of December 1952) the record discloses that petitioner was issued a certificate in May 1925 which he renewed the following year, permitted to lapse in 1927, and took no further action with respect thereto until 1950 when he applied for restoration of his certificate. In December 1950 the Board denied his application. From that time until 1955 petitioner at varying intervals requested reconsideration of his application. In January 1956 the Board again voted to deny restoration of registration.
It plainly appears from the record that the Board has never revoked petitioner's certificate. The fact is that although the law requires annual renewal of a certificate, petitioner having obtained a certificate in 1925 and renewed it in 1926 thereafter for a period of over twenty years took no steps to keep his registration current. There is an obvious difference between revoking an existing certificate and refusing to restore one which has not existed for many years.3 We arc not in accord with the assertion in the Board's brief that we have no jurisdiction over "the renewal procedure" of the Board. Under...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Feldman v. Board of Pharmacy of Dist. of Columbia, 2404.
...takes cognizance of situations like this, where at renewal time a licensee's case is pending before the Board. See also Norton v. Leisering, D.C.Mun.App., 125 A.2d 56. This appeal is not Many grounds for reversal are urged by petitioner. We reach only one: the claim that he was denied due p......