State Ex Rel. Landis v. Simmons

• Decision Date: 17 March 1932
• Citation: 140 So. 187,104 Fla. 487
• Parties: STATE ex rel. LANDIS, Atty. Gen., et al. v. SIMMONS, Judge, et al.
• Court: Florida Supreme Court

140 So. 187

104 Fla. 487

STATE ex rel. LANDIS, Atty. Gen., et al. v. SIMMONS, Judge, et al.

Florida Supreme Court

March 17, 1932

Commissioners' Decision.

Original proceeding by the State of Florida, on the relation of Cary D. Landis, Attorney General, and others, for a peremptory writ of prohibition to Daniel A. Simmons, as Judge of the Circuit Court of Duval County, and another. On respondents' demurrer to the petition and motion to dismiss it and quash a rule in prohibition and petitioners' demurrer to respondents' return.

Respondents' demurrer and motion overruled, petitioners' demurrer sustained, and writ made permanent.

COUNSEL

C. D. Blackwell, of West Palm Beach, for petitioners.

L. S Gaulden, of West Palm Beach, for respondents.

OPINION

ANDREWS C.

The issues presented here for adjudication are those raised (1) by respondents' motion to quash the petition and peremptory writ of prohibition, and (2) the issue presented by the demurrer of the petitioners to the return or answer filed by respondent Judge D. A. Simmons.

It appears from the pleadings and record that on May 29, 1931 Dr. George M. Dawson, a resident physician and surgeon of Palm Beach county, Fla., made and filed with the state board of medical examiners, whose headquarters are in Tampa, Fla a formal complaint against one Paul C. Ronning, a practitioner of medicine residing in said county of Palm Beach, charging him with having obtained a certificate of license to practice medicine unlawfully and fraudulently; that the said license, purporting to have been issued by the former board of electric medical examiners under date of February 11, 1921, was filed for record on April 8, 1926, and recorded in Miscellaneous Book 19, p. 246, Public Records of Palm Beach County.

The petition for prohibition states that on June 15, 1931, the said state board, after giving due notice to said Ronning of said charges with place and time of hearing, convened in Jacksonville, Duval county, Fla., and that after hearing the evidence and upon due consideration thereof the said board entered an order revoking the license of Ronning; that pursuant to the provisions of chapter 8415, Laws of Florida 1921, a certified copy of the board's judgment of revocation was duly recorded in Palm Beach county, Fla., in which county Ronning resides and where his purported license to practice medicine is recorded; that thereafter said Ronning, feeling aggrieved by the judgment, applied to and obtained from the circuit court of Duval county a writ of certiorari directed to said state board of medical examiners requiring said board to send up the entire record of proceedings in said cause, and that in response thereto the said board transmitted a certified copy of said record to the circuit court of Duval county; that after the record reached said court, the said Ronning by his counsel called up for consideration a motion to quash the charges, which motion appears to have been the same as that previously presented to and denied by the state board of medical examiners preceding the trial. The petition for writ of prohibition states that before presenting any argument at the hearing that counsel for said board suggested that under the act of 1921 as amended by the act of 1927, Judge Simmons was without jurisdiction and that the jurisdiction of said cause was with the circuit court of the county where the said license of Ronning was filed and recorded, and not with the circuit court in Duval county. The answer and return of respondent Judge Simmons also states that before entering upon a discussion of the law presented by the record, counsel for the said board raised the question and contended and argued that said court was without jurisdiction and that certiorari could be brought only in Palm Beach county. It appears that no formal motion or plea attacking the jurisdiction of the circuit court of Duval county was filed at said hearing by the said board, but that after the hearing the judge of said court took the matter under advisement and later entered an order in which it was determined that the said court had jurisdiction and forthwith awarded a trial denovo before said court; also held that the statutes in question were constitutional Thereupon a petition was presented to this court for an order directed to the circuit court of Duval county to stay proceedings and to show cause why said court should not be prohibited from trying said cause.

The necessary steps for granting also annulling licenses of physicians are controlled by chapter 8415, Laws of Florida 1921, as amended by chapter 12285, Laws of 1927. The medical board created by the act of 1921 repealed all previous laws in conflict and at the same time constituted what may be termed a 'composite' board of medical examiners, made up of ten members composed of five allopathic, three eclectic, and two homeopathic physicians, who are appointed in various portions of the state by the Governor for alternative periods of years. The above acts specifically repealed all former laws of the state governing each of the three above-mentioned branches of the medical profession, but continued in full effect all licenses theretofore duly and legally issued thereunder. It is obvious that if license No. 593 held by the said Ronning upon his qualifying under the former statute relating to licensing of eclectic physicians on February 11, 1921, before the 'composite' medical board was created on June 10, 1921, that the said certificate of license issued to Ronning would be at least prima facie valid.

The complaint against said Ronning charges that he never passed any examination or qualified in any way to practice medicine under either act; that the said license certificate No. 593, purporting to have been issued on February 11, 1921, to said Ronning by the board of eclectic medical examiners and recorded April 8, 1926, in Palm Beach county, was procured by Ronning fraudulently during the year 1926, through one George A. Munch, a former secretary of the board of eclectic medical examiners; and that said Munch by some means obtained the said certificate signed in blank by Dr. Mark Hammond, a former president of the board of eclectic medical examiners, and that the said Munch filled in the said blank license so signed, by fixing the number 593 thereto and writing in the name of Paul C. Ronning and thereupon antedating it as of February 11, 1921, which is a date prior to the date on which said eclectic board was abolished by said chapter 8415, which became effective June 10, 1921; and that the said Ronning paid said Munch $500 for said fraudulent certificate No. 593.

The statutes of this state now governing the organization, duties, and powers of the state board of medical examiners are contained in section 3404 to 3416, Compiled General Laws of Florida 1927. Section 3409 provides that before any licensee shall begin to practice medicine after being duly examined and admitted to practice, his license so issued shall 'be recorded in a book for that purpose in the office of the clerk of the circuit court of the county in which he resides, or in which such practice is intended to be carried on, with the name, residence, place and date of birth and source, number and date of his license to practice,' and that 'before registering each licensee shall file, to be kept in a bound volume in the office of the clerk of the circuit court an affidavit of the above facts, and also that he is the person named in such license and had before receiving the same complied with all the requirements as to examination required by law; that no money was paid for such license, except the regular fee paid by all applicants therefor, that no fraud, misrepresentation or mistake in any material regard was employed by any one or occurred in order that such license should be granted.'

The record in this case shows that said Ronning resides and practices medicine in Palm Beach county, also in the adjoining county of Broward, and that his license, which was annulled by the state board, was filed and recorded only in those two counties. Section 3415, Comp. Gen. Laws 1927, provides that in the event any such license is revoked and registration annulled 'the said board shall forthwith transmit to the clerk of the circuit court or courts in which said accused is registered as a physician, a certificate under its seal, certifying that such registration has been annulled, and such clerk shall, upon receipt of such certificate, file the same and forthwith mark such registration 'annulled."

Said section 3415 further provides that 'such suspended physician may have the proceedings of said board reviewed by certiorari to the circuit courtof the circuit in which said license is recorded'; and that 'said writ shall issue upon the petition of the person whose license has been revoked.' It also provides that 'the accused shall have the right to demand a trial de novo before the circuit court, and thereafter the court shall hear and determine the guilt or innocence of the accused according to the evidence and law applicable to the facts which shall be produced before him, and unless the guilt of the accused shall appear beyond a reasonable doubt, the court shall render the decision in favor of the accused and restore him to all rights to practice,' etc.

It will be observed that while a physician obtains the right to practice merely from having a license issued to him, yet he may engage in actual practice in any county only after he files and has his license recorded 'in the office of the Clerk of the Circuit Court of the county in which he resides,' or conducts his practice, and it is in those counties where he is duly registered that the record must be marked 'annulle...