State v. Kansas City College of Medicine and Surgery

Citation285 S.W. 980
Decision Date23 June 1926
Docket NumberNo. 26507.,26507.
PartiesSTATE ex inf. OTTO, Atty. Gen., v. KANSAS CITY COLLEGE OF MEDICINE AND SURGERY.
CourtUnited States State Supreme Court of Missouri

North T. Gentry, Atty. Gen., and J. Henry Caruthers, Asst. Atty. Gen., for relator.

James R. Page and John V. Hill, both of Kansas City, for respondent.

WHITE, J.

The relator filed in this court an information in the nature of a quo warranto, seeking to oust the respondent from enjoying the powers and privileges of a corporation.

The relator sets out several alleged reasons why the corporate franchise of the respondent should be forfeited. The important ones of these may be summarized as follows:

(a) That it keeps no intelligible record of its proceedings as a college.

(b) That, although the respondent (under what is now article 9, c. 90, R. S. 1919), was organized as a corporation for benevolent purposes, it is conducted for private profit and gain, contrary to the law of its incorporation.

(c) That for purely monetary considerations respondent is and has been engaged in the sale of diplomas and certificates of graduation, without regard to the educational qualifications or fitness of those who receive them.

(d) That the instructors in defendant's school are selected from the student body, and are wholly incompetent to perform the functions and duty of teaching and giving scientific instruction necessary in a medical school.

(e) That the respondent does not maintain a properly organized curriculum covering four years' instruction, which is essential for a medical school of four years' requirement, as provided by statute.

(f) That respondent, for the purpose of instruction, has not provided any dispensary or any hospital where patients are received and treated, and where the students may receive instruction.

(g) That one of the avowed purposes of the maintenance of the corporation as a benevolent institution is to escape the lawful payment of taxes.

Other alleged misuses of corporate powers mentioned are more or less a repetition of those enumerated.

Upon the filing of the information, this court issued an order upon respondent to show cause why it should not forfeit its charter for the misuse of its powers, which order was served upon respondent June 22, 1925.

Respondent filed in this court, July 20, 1925, a demand for trial by jury and for that purpose transfer of the cause to the Jackson county circuit court. The motion was overruled August 4, 1925. Respondent filed its answer July 20, 1925, in which it denied generally and specifically the allegations of the information, and set up matters of defense, some of which were later stricken out on motion. What remains of the answer consists of general and specific denials of the charges contained in the information, together with some statements of evidence upon the issues.

This court, July 31, 1925, appointed Hon. Edward J. Bean, of St. Louis, special commissioner, to take the testimony and report on the law and the facts in the case. The commissioner took a large volume of evidence and March 6, 1926, filed his report, in which he made a finding of the facts and stated his conclusions of law sustaining the essential charges preferred by the Attorney General.

The articles of agreement by which the respondent was organized were entered into January 5, 1916. This document recited that the signers desired to found a corporation under the provisions of article 10, c. 33, R. S. 1909 (article 11, c. 90, R. S. 1919); that the name of the institution should be the Kansas City College of Medicine and Surgery; that the purpose for which it was formed was to promote the study and practice of "eclectic" medicine, surgery, pharmacy, and dentistry in all their departments, with a preparatory school for each department, a post graduate course of study of public health, and the establishment of a hospital operated therewith, etc. Charles A. Gilman, president, D. R. Alexander, secretary, and Edward H. Clark, treasurer, were the first board of directors. The articles were signed by those three men. The incorporators then applied to the circuit court of Jackson county for a pro forma decree of incorporation, and the court January 13, 1916, entered an order incorporating the Kansas City College of Medicine and Surgery.

The evidence shows that Dr. Alexander, the nominal secretary of the institution, was in fact the institution. He was business manager, handled all the funds, collected and disbursed all money paid to the institution. The management and control of the respondent's affairs were at all times in his hands. The corporation had no bank account. The laboratory man received $100 a month, and lived in the institution. The treasurer lived in the institution, and was supposed to receive $50 a month, but it was seldom paid to him, and he handled none of the money of the institution. At the time of the hearing, the institution owed him about $6,000, according to Dr. Alexander. Dr. Alexander himself received all the money and put it into his pocket, after defraying the expenses incurred. So far as the books of the institution showed, none of the money was ever paid out for equipment in the conduct of the college except one item for a tank that cost $70.

Dr. Frederick C. Waite, representing the American Medical Association, inspected respondent's school, and testified in the case. Dr. Alexander said to him: "I am the school." The curriculum was nominally a four years' course, but what is called a repetitive curriculum; the work of the junior and senior years were the same and were combined. It was not a school of four years' requirement. There was no hospital connected with the school, and not dispensary. Alexander said that a hospital was under construction, and that the students could go to other hospitals on their own initiative, but, so far as he knew, and so far as required, men who graduated had never seen a sick patient. The evidence showed that proper hospital experience was necessary in a proper medical education. Dr. Waite swore that on one occasion Dr. Alexander said he knew he was not running a medical school.

Dr. Alexander was charged with the sale of diplomas, and a few examples will illustrate his method: Clarence L. Hobbs graduated from the St. Louis College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1922. A graduation from that school did not entitle him to examination for a license by the state board of health of Missouri, nor by the board of health of Connecticut. Hobbs desired to practice medicine in Connecticut, and Alexander told him that he would arrange it so that Hobbs could take the Connecticut board examination. He accomplished this by granting to Hobbs an honorary degree from the Kansas City College of Medicine and Surgery. With that diploma Hobbs passed an examination and received license to practice medicine in Connecticut. The so-called honorary degree or diploma thus issued to Hobbs was in this form:

"Kansas City College of Medicine and Surgery, Kansas City, Missouri.

"Know all men by these presents: That ____, M. D., has complied with all the requirements of this college and has passed the prescribed examination which entitles him to a diploma from this institution; therefore, we, the trustees and faculty of the Kansas City College of Medicine and Surgery, of Kansas City, Missouri, by virtue of the authority vested in us by the Legislature of the state of Missouri, do confer on him the degree of doctor

HONORARY

in medicine and master in surgery, with all the privileges and immunities thereunto belonging in this or any other country.

"In testimony whereof we do hereunto affix our seal and signatures, dated at Kansas. City, Missouri, this ninth day of June, A. D. MCXXII. "[Signed]

"R. O. Rhodes, M. D., President. "D. R. Alexander, M. D., Secretary. "B. E. Hubbard, M. D., C. M., Dean.

"[Corporate Seal of Kansas City College of Medicine and Surgery.]"

Hobbs testified that the word "honorary" was not in there when he received the diploma. He put it in himself. He copied it from the diploma of his brother Alonzo G. Hobbs; the term, however, was engrossed at the direction of Dr. Alexander. This document certifies that ____, M. D., "has complied with all the requirements of this college and has passed the prescribed examination which entitles him to a diploma from this institution." Except for the word "honorary," it is in terms a diploma and not an honorary degree.

Alonzo G. Hobbs, brother of Clarence L. Hobbs, also graduated from the St. Louis School of Physicians and Surgeons, and bought a like honorary degree from Alexander. This diploma was delivered to Alonzo G. Hobbs in St. Louis. Clarence L. Hobbs paid Alexander $250 for his honorary diploma. Alonzo G. Hobbs paid $150 for his.

One William P. Sachs was employed by Leroy Combs to obtain for Combs a medical diploma from respondent's school. Combs lived in Connecticut. Sachs knew Alexander. In March, 1923, Sachs went to Kansas City to see Alexander and told him that Combs would give him $250 for a diploma...

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12 cases
  • State ex Inf. McKittrick v. Williams, 36718.
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    ......145, 260 Mo. 276; State ex inf. Otto v. Kansas City College of Medicine & Surgery, 315 Mo. 101, 285 S.W. ......
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