Wee v. Board of Accountancy

Decision Date07 March 1969
Docket NumberNo. 4745,4745
Citation51 Haw. 80,452 P.2d 94
PartiesJoseph G. K. WEE, Appellant, v. BOARD OF ACCOUNTANCY, State of Hawaii, John A. Baker, Jr., Ralph S. Dobbins, Garret S. Hokada, Kazuo Senda, Richard T. Okubo, George F. Ikeno and Severino G. Alipo, Members Thereof, Appellees.
CourtHawaii Supreme Court

Syllabus by the Court

1. Public accounting experience required of an appellant for certified public accountant's certificate, if not acquired in the employ of a certified public accountant or a partnership of certified public accountants, must be acquired in the practice of public accountancy.

2. In construing ambiguous statutory language, the true meaning of ambiguous words may be ascertained by examining the context in which they are used. R.L.H.1955, § 1-18.

3. In a particular context, the word 'or' has the meaning of 'and.' R.L.H.1955, § 1-23.

4. To practice public accountancy is to hold one's self out to the public as following that profession as a calling.

5. In the context of R.L.H.1955, § 164-1, the word 'clients' is used to mean persons who engage the services of those who hold themselves out to the public as practitioners of the profession of accountancy.

Ton Seek Pai, Honolulu, for appellant (Okumura & Takushi, Honolulu, of counsel).

Roy M. Miyamoto, Deputy Atty. Gen., State v. Hawaii (Bert T. Kobayashi, Atty. Gen., with him on the brief), for appellees.

Before RICHARDSON, C. J., MARUMOTO, ABE and LEVINSON, JJ., and MASATO DOI, Circuit Judge, assigned by reason of vacancy.

MARUMOTO, Justice.

This is an appeal by Joseph G. K. Wee from a circuit court judgment, which, upon a review of the record of the board of accountancy under R.L.H.1955, 1965 Supp., § 6C-14, affirmed the board's decision denying his application for a certified public accountant's certificate.

The question for decision on this appeal is whether appellant had the 'public accounting experience' required of an applicant for the certificate.

Appellant stated the following as an additional question involved in this appeal: 'Did the failure of the board to conform to the contested case provision under the Hawaii Administrative Procedures Act and commission of other irregularities require remand by the Circuit Court?' That question need not be considered, for out decision on the question stated above will render it moot.

R.L.H.1955, § 164-7, requires that an applicant for a certified public accountant's certificate have, among other qualifications, the experience set forth in one of paragraphs (1) through (4) of subsection (c).

The experience set forth in paragraph (1) is three years of public accounting experience, of which two years must have been in the employ of a certified public accountant or a partnership of which not less than one-half of the partners are certified public accountants. In paragraph (2), it is four years of public accounting experience, of which one year must have been in the employ of a certified public accountant or a partnership of which not less than one-half of the partners are certified public accountants. Paragraph (3) specifies five years of public accounting experience, none of which was acquired in the employ of a certified public accountant or a partnership of certified public accountants. The requirement stated in paragraph (4) is five years of government accounting or auditing experience, three years of which must have been in post-auditing work.

Appellant had not been employed by a certified public accountant or a partnership of certified public accountants; nor had he ever been a government employee. So, he did not qualify under paragraphs (1), (2), and (4). In the circumstance, he sought to qualify under paragraph (3).

Appellant filed three applications for the certificate. The application considered by the board and pertinent here was the one filed on May 17, 1961. At the time he filed that application, he had been in the employ of Hawaiian Trust Company, Limited, for more than five years, having been first employed there in May 1953. As an employee of the trust company he prepared estate reports, tax returns, mortgage insurance applications, and requests for advance rulings on profit-sharing plans, and did other work which involved the application of accounting knowledge and accounting procedures.

Upon the enactment of S.L.H.1955, c. 259, now compiled in R.L.H.1955, c. 164, appellant applied with the board for registration as a public accountant, and was so registered. This was done under the provision presently found in R.L.H.1955, § 164-10(c), which mandated the board to register as a public accountant 'Any person engaged in private accounting or auditing who has had not less than three years' experience in such work or in public accounting or both and whose experience is of such a character and for a length of time sufficient in the opinion of the board to be substantially equivalent to three years of public accounting experience,' provided the application therefor was filed within the time limit set forth in the statute.

Appellant did all of his accounting work in the course of his employment with the trust company. The board held that such work was in the realm of private accounting and did not provide the public accounting experience required under § 164-7(c)(3). We concur in that holding.

Under § 164-7(c)(3), private accounting experience does not count as public accounting experience. That provision, unlike § 164-10(c), does not empower the board to credit private accounting experience as public accounting experience, even though the private accounting experience set forth in an application may be of such character as may well be deemed to be equivalent to public accounting experience.

Thus, the public accounting experience required of an applicant for certified public accountant's certificate, if not acquired in the employ of a certified public accountant or a partnership of certified public accountants, must be acquired in the practice of public accountancy. What is meant by practice of public accountancy is set forth in subsections (a) through (e) of § 164-1. Appellant contended before the board that his work at the trust company constituted practice of public accountancy as defined in subsections (b) and (d).

Under subsection (b), a person 'Who...

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2 cases
  • Neumann v. Ramil
    • United States
    • Hawaii Court of Appeals
    • 11 Julio 1986
    ..."and" for the word "or." The rule of construction stated in HRS § 1-18 (1976) 9 permits the substitution. See Wee v. Board of Accountancy, 51 Haw. 80, 84, 452 P.2d 94, 97 (1969). "The sense of a word which harmonizes best with the whole context of the statute and promotes in the fullest man......
  • Kimball v. Sadaoka, 5631
    • United States
    • Hawaii Supreme Court
    • 1 Abril 1976
    ...to absurd and legislatively unintended results. 3 The use of the word 'and' is not decisive. See HRS § 1-18. Cf. Wee v. Board of Accountancy, 51 Haw. 80, 452 P.2d 94 (1969). In construing the statute, upon the appellant's motion to suppress, the trial court properly 'Any person violating (H......

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