Bennett v. Bennett

132 S.E. 528, 161 Ga. 936, 1926 Ga. LEXIS 365
CourtSupreme Court of Georgia
DecidedFebruary 26, 1926
DocketNo. 4973
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 132 S.E. 528 (Bennett v. Bennett) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bennett v. Bennett, 132 S.E. 528, 161 Ga. 936, 1926 Ga. LEXIS 365 (Ga. 1926).

Opinions

Beck, P. J.

(After stating the foregoing facts.) The right and authority of plaintiff to bring this petition and maintain this suit must be found, if at all, in the act entitled, “An act to license and regulate the business of making loans in sums of $300, or less,” etc., approved August 17, 1920 (Georgia Laws 1920, p. 215). After a careful consideration of this act, we find no provision giving to the plaintiff the power necessary to the maintenance of this action seeking the relief prayed. Conceding for the sake of argument that the plaintiff has the power vested in the State bank examiner, under the terms of the act, then the [939]*939plaintiff is made the “licensing official” from whom persons desiring to engage in the business of making loans of money to the value of $300 or less, under the conditions imposed in the act, shall obtain a license, and with whom such person shall file the bond prescribed. And he is given the right and power to investigate the loans and businesses of any licensee or of any person making such loans; and he may, after notice to the licensee and reasonable opportunity to be heard, revoke such license, if the licensee has violated the provisions of the act; and where the licensee has been convicted by a court the second time of a violation of the section of the act which relates to the amount of loans and interest, etc., the licensing official must revoke the license. Sections 10 and 11 of the act relate to the duties of the licensing official in regard to making investigations and keeping records. The sections of the act indicated and specified sum up and include all the powers conferred upon the plaintiff under the terms of the act, and to that act he must look for the power which he may exercise; for it is the source and only source of his power to enforce the provisions of this enactment in regard to the regulation of the loan business contemplated by the statute under consideration. The other sections of the act contain certain provisions in detail for the regulation of the loan business, and prescribe the penalties attached to violations of certain sections of the act, which render the party violating them subject to punishment as for a misdemeanor. In no clause of the act is power given to file and maintain a petition in equity like that brought in this case.

Nor is the power to maintain this action to be implied from anything in the act. While the facts appearing in the record in the case of Bentley v. State Board of Examiners, 152 Ga. 836 (supra), differ in many respects from the facts in this case, the issues and questions arising under those facts are quite similar to those presented by the record in this case; and the decision in that case is applicable here and sustains the trial court in dismissing this case upon general demurrer. In that case the State Board of Medical Examiners brought its petition against one Bentley, alleging that the defendant was engaged in the practice of medicine and surgery in Murray County, Georgia, contrary to law and without having complied with the provi[940]*940sions of the law authorizing such practice. The petition alleged in detail the specific reasons why the defendant’s being engaged in the practice of medicine and surgery was contrary to law. It further alleged that the defendant had obtained a fraudulent diploma from a school of medicine; that he had obtained a fraudulent license to practice medicine in the State of Georgia; that he had never been licensed by a medical board to practice, was not a graduate of any school of medicine, etc., and stated more fully in detail than appears from the above recital the grounds for the allegation that the defendant was practicing medicine and surgery contrary to law. The petition prayed for an injunction to restrain the defendant from practicing medicine and surgery, and that his license and diploma be declared null and void, and that they be cancelled and expunged from the records. The defendant demurred to the complaint, on the ground that there was no equity therein; that the State Board of Medical Examiners as such had no right to prosecute this complaint; that the complaint charged defendant with a criminal offense, of which a court of equity would not take cognizance, neither aiding nor restraining criminal courts in the exercise of their jurisdiction; and that complainants had an adequate and complete remedy at law. The court sustained the demurrer to so much of the petition as prayed for injunctive relief, and overruled the same as the remainder of the petition. The defendant assigned error on this judgment. Tn deciding questions raised by the assignment of error this court held that the Board of Medical Examiners was an administrative body, and had only such pow-, er as the legislature had expressly or by necessary implication conferred upon it; and cited cases sustaining that proposition. This court held that the act of the legislature creating that board (Georgia Laws 1913, p. 101), as amended by the act of August 20, 1918 (Georgia Laws 1918, p.- 173), did not expressly confer this power upon the board, and that it was not conferred by necessary implication from the terms of the act; the court being of the opinion that such power was not reasonably necessary to execute the express powers conferred upon the board by the act, and therefore could not be implied. It was insisted in that case by counsel for defendant in error that this language, “to protect the people from illegal and unqualified practitioners [941]*941of medicine and surgery,” which is found in the caption of the act, is an express grant of authority to file the suit. In deciding the case Mr. Justice Hines pointed out that the language quoted appeared only in the caption of the act and of the amendment thereto, and that the preamble or title of an act is not a part thereof, though it might be considered as one of the aids in its construction when the body of the act is ambiguous. But the court said further, that, if the above language found in the caption of the act were contained in the body, the proper construction thereof would not confer the power claimed by the plaintiff; that “the methods of protecting the people of this State from illegal and unqualified practitioners of medicine and surgery are fully outlined and defined in the acts.” After pointing out that by a specified section of the act of August 20, 1918, the board had the power to cause a licentiate’s name to be removed from the record in the office of any court in this State, when fraud or deception is used in applying for the license or in passing the examination provided for in said act, and for other reasons mentioned in this section, it was said that the board had express authority to have a licentiate’s name removed from the records; and as this power conferred by the statute afforded a specific remedy for expunging the name of a physician from the records in the office of any clerk of court in this State, the power to proceed in equity for the same purpose would not be implied; and then was added this distinct ruling: “It is made a crime for any person to practice medicine in this State without possessing in full force and virtue a valid license to practice under the laws of this State; and such person so practicing is declared to be guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction of such offense he shall be punished for a misdemeanor, in accordance with section 1065 of the Penal Code of this State. Thus the statutes creating this board fully prescribe the means and methods of protecting the people of this State against illegal and unqualified'practitioners of medicine and surgery; and when such means and methods are prescribed for such protection, they must be followed by this board.

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Bluebook (online)
132 S.E. 528, 161 Ga. 936, 1926 Ga. LEXIS 365, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bennett-v-bennett-ga-1926.