Castelli v. Department of Professional Regulation

33 Fla. Supp. 2d 191
CourtState of Florida Division of Administrative Hearings
DecidedJanuary 22, 1989
DocketCase Nos. 87-1594 and 87-2194
StatusPublished

This text of 33 Fla. Supp. 2d 191 (Castelli v. Department of Professional Regulation) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering State of Florida Division of Administrative Hearings primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Castelli v. Department of Professional Regulation, 33 Fla. Supp. 2d 191 (Fla. Super. Ct. 1989).

Opinion

OPINION OF THE COURT

LINDA M. RIGOT, Hearing Officer.

RECOMMENDED ORDER

Pursuant to notice, this cause was heard by Linda M. Rigot, the assigned Hearing Officer of the Division of Administrative Hearings, on September 17-18, 1987, in Miami, Florida.

Respondent denied the application of each of the Petitioners for licensure by examination as a physician in the state of Florida. Each [192]*192Petitioner requested a formal hearing on that denial. After these causes were referred to the Division of Administrative Hearings for the conduct of those formal hearings, Petitioners moved to consolidate the cases, and the consolidation was granted. Accordingly, the issues for determination herein are whether each of the Petitioners is entitled to approval of his or her application for licensure by examination.

Petitioners presented the testimony of Guiseppe Castelli; Deise C. Granado-Villar; Carmen Rojas; Margaret Louis Cason, M.D.; Erma Shockley; Dorothy J. Faircloth; Ramon Rodriguez-Torrez; Charles Lankau, M.D.; Juan Arcuri; Santiago Garcia; Michael Borrelli; Edna Evenson; and Elizabeth J. Hart. Respondent presented the testimony of Israel Saferstein; Edna Evenson; Koralia Lopez; Dorothy J. Faircloth; and Erma Shockley.

Additionally, Joint Exhibit numbers 1; Petitioners’ Exhibit 4 and 7-11; and Respondent’s Exhibits numbered 2-7 were admitted in evidence.

Both parties submitted post hearing proposed findings of fact in the form of proposed recommended orders. Rulings on each proposed finding of fact can be found in the Appendix to this Recommended Order.

FINDINGS OF FACT

1. Petitioner Castelli originally applied for licensure as a physician in the state of Florida by application signed, notarized, and dated July of 1985.

2. In conjunction with his application for licensure, Petitioner Castelli submitted a FLEX application that was signed and dated July 27, 1985.

3. The 1985 application was accompanied by several documents, including Castelli’s “Titulo” signed by him, dated September 15, 1972, and notarized by Norma Perez as a true and correct copy of the original.

4. Petitioner Castelli was permitted by the Board of Medicine to take the December, 1985, FLEX, which Castelli did take and fail.

5. By letter signed and dated August 30, 1986, Petitioner Castelli requested that he be allowed to retake the FLEX examination in December of 1986.

6. A notice dated October 15, 1986, was sent by the Board to the address provided by Castelli informing him that, among other things, he was required to complete a new application because his previous [193]*193application was over one year old. Petitioner Castelli did not respond to that notification.

7. On November 17, 1986, Petitioner Granado-Villar telephoned Respondent’s employee Chandra Prine to inquire as to the status of her pending application to take the FLEX examination on December 5, 1986. Petitioner Granado-Villar was advised by Prine that her application was in order and that she should be receiving her admission card for the examination. Granado-Villar then asked Prine the status of the application of Petitioner Castelli. Prine told Granado-Villar that Castelli’s application was incomplete because updated pages 2-5 had never been received and because no current ECFMG certificate was in his file. Prine further advised Granado-Villar that the deadline for applications for the December 5, 1986 FLEX examination had passed. In response to Granado-Villar’s inquiries as to what could be done to help Castelli, Prine advised her that if his application file could be completed by 5:00 p.m. on November 18, 1986, Prine would discuss the matter with her supervisor and attempt to place Castelli’s application on the agenda for the November 22, 1986 meeting of the Board of Medicine. Granado-Villar advised Prine that Castelli was a resident of Spain and that she would attempt to get an updated application form to Castelli by overnight mail. Prine told Granado-Villar to include copies of the receipts for overnight mail with Castelli’s updated application.

8. Petitioner Granado-Villar called Petitioner Castelli in Spain, and they decided to send the application to Castelli by commercial airlines in hopes of completing the round-trip in time to file it in the Board’s office by 5:00 p.m. on November 18, 1986. During that conversation Castelli gave Granado-Villar the information she requested so that she could complete the updated application form for him. Granado-Villar typed some of the information on a photocopy of an application and subsequently filled in another portion by hand. Castelli advised Granado-Villar to write the name of Monserrat Compano, a former stewardess for Iberia Airlines on the outside of the envelope so that the envelope might be accorded special treatment.

9. Upon contacting Iberia Airlines, Granado-Villar discovered that there were no flights from Miami to Madrid on November 17 and that the only option was to utilize an Eastern Airlines flight from Miami to New York and then a connecting Iberia flight from New York to Madrid.

10. Granado-Villar placed the updated application in a manila envelope bearing only the names of Monserrat Compano and Petitioner [194]*194Castelli on the outside. She took the envelope to Carmen Rojas, an employee of Eastern Airlines and a friend of hers. She explained that the envelope must be placed on the Eastern flight leaving for New York at 1:00 p.m. on November 17 so that it could subsequently be placed on the Iberia flight from New York to Madrid.

11. Rojas took the envelope to the flight crew for the Eastern flight to New York and gave it to one of the stewardesses, telling her to take the envelope and deliver it to the Iberia ticket counter at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York. No arrangements were made by Rojas, Granado-Villar, or Castelli for getting the envelope from the Iberia ticket counter in New York to the Iberia flight to Madrid.

12. During the morning of November 18 Petitioner Granado-Villar arranged for a delivery service to pick up an envelope from her at the hospital where she is employed and deliver it to Respondent in Tallahassee with specific directions that the envelope must be on the Piedmont Airlines fight leaving Miami for Tallahassee at 5:00 p.m. on November 18, 1986. Also on the morning of November 18 Petitioner Granado-Villar made arrangements with Erma Shockley, an employee at Miami Children’s Hospital and a notary public, for Shockley to notarize Castelli’s signature on his application later that day.

13. On November 18, 1986, Petitioner Granado-Villar took to Shockley a completed application form. She told Shockley that the signature on the form was that of Petitioner Castelli and that Castelli had signed the application form on the previous day at the airport in Madrid. Although both Shockley and Granado-Villar knew that Castelli was not present, Shockley, notarized the signature on Castelli’s application. Further, Shockley and Granado-Villar decided that Shockley would date her notarization as having been done on November 17 in order that the date of the notarization would be consistent with the date of the signature.

14. After the document was notarized, Petitioner Granado-Villar went to the emergency room area to await the arrival of the courier that she had previously arranged. The courier arrived within 5 to 10 minutes thereafter.

15.

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33 Fla. Supp. 2d 191, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/castelli-v-department-of-professional-regulation-fladivadminhrg-1989.