Paley v. Connecticut Medical Examining Bd.
| Decision Date | 27 June 1955 |
| Citation | 142 Conn. 522,115 A.2d 448 |
| Parties | I. Martin PALEY v. CONNECTICUT MEDICAL EXAMINING BOARD et al. Supreme Court of Errors of Connecticut |
| Court | Connecticut Supreme Court |
Frank J. DiSesa, Stamford, for appellant (plaintiff).
Louis Weinstein, Asst. Atty. Gen., with whom, on the brief, was John J. Bracken, Atty. Gen., for appellees (defendants).
Before BALDWIN, O'SULLIVAN, WYNNE and DALY, JJ., and PHILLIPS, Superior Court Judge.
O'SULLIVAN, Associate Justice.
On December 7, 1953, the state department of health, a defendant to which we shall refer as the department, filed with the named defendant, herein called the board, two charges against the plaintiff. The first recited that the plaintiff was addicted to the use of habit-forming drugs; the second, that he had been guilty of immoral or unprofessional conduct by administering habit-forming drugs to his wife. Hearings thereon were held on January 6 and February 3, 1954. The board found the plaintiff not guilty on the second charge but guilty on the first and recommended to the department that his license to practice medicine and surgery in Connecticut be revoked. On February 18, 1954, the department issued an order revoking it. The plaintiff then appealed to the Superior Court from the actions of the board and of the department. The court dismissed the appeal, and the plaintiff has now appealed to this court.
The assignments of error readily resolve themselves into the following propositions: First, the board acted arbitrarily and illegally in finding on the evidence before it that the plaintiff had been addicted to the use of a habit-forming drug, and, second, the board, in recommending the revocation of his license, and the department, in ordering the revocation, abused their respective discretions because such a penalty was too severe.
The record discloses that there was evidence before the board from which it could reasonably have found these facts: Robert C. Grieb entered the employ of the state as a narcotics agent in 1952. On June 5, 1953, he was sent to interview the plaintiff at Norwalk, where the latter maintained an office for the practice of medicine. The reason for seeking the interview was to inquire about a large number of prescriptions for demerol, a habit-forming drug, which had been issued by the plaintiff for Arthur Magnan. Magnan was the father of a secretary-receptionist who worked for the plaintiff. Upon being asked about the matter, the plaintiff told Grieb that Magnan had an inoperable cancer and needed large quantities of drugs to alleviate pain and that he, the plaintiff, was prescribing demerol for that purpose. Although Grieb noticed that the plaintiff had lost considerable weight since they had previously met and that his health seemed to have failed, and although he, Grieb, was suspicious of the plaintiff's explanation, he accepted it and so reported to his superior.
Later, as a result of a complaint from a patient that, while she was consulting the plaintiff professionally, he had fallen asleep and had to be aroused several times by the nurse, Grieb again interviewed him at his office on August 5, 1953. On that occasion, the plaintiff admitted that he had been using demerol for about a year and that he was consuming it daily at the rate of 30 cubic centimeters. Grieb, noting that the plaintiff appeared drowsy and hesitant and had difficulty in speaking and in moving about, was of the opinion that he was, at the time, under the influence of a drug. The plaintiff expressed worry about the possibility of criminal action being taken against him, but Grieb assured him that no prosecution would occur if he co-operated fully by entering a sanitarium for treatment. The plaintiff agreed to this and on that very evening made arrangements to be hospitalized the following week at an institution in New York.
After discussing the case with the federal authorities, Grieb, at their request, obtained from the plaintiff his federal license to write prescriptions for narcotics. Grieb left the license with the federal agent in Bridgeport. On August 17, the plaintiff entered a sanitarium in New York City where he remained until September 7.
Grieb visited the plaintiff on September 28 and had a long conversation with him. The plaintiff discussed his background, his past experiences, the nature of his practice, his interest in laboratory work and like matters. He remarked that he had a medicine to cure cancer. The drawback to the medicine, he related, was the unpredictability of its reaction upon the patient and the accompaniment of generalized pain when it was taken. He went on to say that demerol was injected to overcome the ensuing pain. To check on the toxicity of any particular dose of the medicine when he decided to attempt the cure, he was accustomed to give himself a trial dose, he said, and at the same time he would administer demerol to himself. In this manner, he continued, he had become addicted to the drug.
On October 26, the plaintiff asked Grieb to have his federal license returned and on November 30 he went to Grieb's home for the same purpose. On each occasion the plaintiff justified the request by saying that he had a patient who was suffering from cancer and that he wanted to be able to prescribe drugs to ease the patient's pain.
At the conclusion of the second hearing, the board went into executive session. After reviewing the evidence, the members voted to find the plaintiff not guilty under the second charge, which was therefore dismissed, but guilty under the first. The minutes respecting the latter charge recite:
One of the plaintiff's most urgently pressed claims is that the board's conclusion of guilt was arbitrary...
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