Colorado State Board of Pharmacy v. Priem

2012 COA 5, 272 P.3d 1136, 2012 WL 19758, 2012 Colo. App. LEXIS 18
CourtColorado Court of Appeals
DecidedJanuary 5, 2012
DocketNo. 11CA0439
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 2012 COA 5 (Colorado State Board of Pharmacy v. Priem) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Colorado Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Colorado State Board of Pharmacy v. Priem, 2012 COA 5, 272 P.3d 1136, 2012 WL 19758, 2012 Colo. App. LEXIS 18 (Colo. Ct. App. 2012).

Opinion

Opinion by

Judge TERRY.

T1 May a licensing board decline to reinstate a license to a former licensee who has been previously convicted of a erime related to the licensed profession, even though he has demonstrated his subsequent rehabilitation? We conclude that, notwithstanding section 24-5-101, C.R.S.2011, under the circumstances presented here, the board may do so.

T2 Loren M. Priem appeals the Final Agency Order (Final Order) of the Colorado State Board of Pharmacy (Board), which denied Priem's application to become a pharmacy intern. We affirm because the Final Order had a reasonable basis in the law and was supported by substantial evidence in the record.

I. Background

13 While he was a licensed pharmacist in Colorado, Priem stole more than 1,500 tablets of schedule II controlled substances, as well as other drugs, worth more than $5,000 from the pharmacies where he worked. He sold or gave away the drugs to persons who did not have prescriptions for them, one of whom was an addict. As a result of these actions, criminal charges were brought against him, and he relinquished his pharmacist license. Priem was convicted of two felonies and a petty offense.

T4 Three years after relinquishing his license, and after completing his sentence, Priem applied to be a pharmacy intern. Because a pharmacy internship is a prerequisite to licensure as a pharmacist under section 12-22-116(8.3)(a)(IIID), C.R.S.2011, Priem's internship application amounted to an application for reinstatement of his pharmacist license. The Board denied his application based on the facts surrounding his prior li-censure relinquishment. Priem appealed this decision, and was granted a hearing before an administrative law judge (ALJ). The ALJ issued an initial agency decision, finding that Priem had demonstrated rehabilitation and thus proved his fitness for licen-sure, and ordering reinstatement of his license.

T5 The Board, on its own motion, filed exceptions to the ALJ's initial ageney decision, and held a hearing. In its Final Order, the Board adopted the ALJ's findings of fact, including the finding that Priem had been [1138]*1138rebabilitated. However, the Board disagreed with the ALJ's conclusion that Priem's rehabilitation warranted the granting of his application. The Board therefore upheld its earlier denial of the application. Priem now appeals the Final Order. |

II. Due Process

T 6 Priem first asserts that the Final Order must be reversed because his due process rights were violated when the Board's Chief Inspector-who investigated the case against Priem, served as the Board's advisory witness, and advocated for denial of his license-was present during the Board's deliberations. He further argues that, because the Board's decision is thus tainted, we should reverse its decision and reinstate the ALJ's order granting his license. We conclude reversal is not required.

T7 Priem relies for these contentions on deKoevend v. Board of Education, 688 P.2d 219 (Colo.1984). In that case, the supreme court reversed the school board's dismissal of a tenured teacher and remanded the case to the board. Id. at 221. The board had allowed the school superintendent and principal, both of whom had testified in favor of dismissal, to be present during the board's closed deliberations. Id. at 224. The court held that the board's decision made while those persons were present "violated both the letter and spirit of" the court's earlier admonition in Weissman v. Board of Education, 190 Colo. 414, 547 P.2d 1267 (1976), to refrain from such conduct. deKoevend, 688 P.2d at 228. The deKoevend court noted that the superintendent and principal had a substantial interest in the outcome of the case, and that, under the particular cireum-stances of the case, their presence during the board's deliberations "was sufficient to overcome the presumption of regularity attendant to an administrative proceeding." Id. It further held that their presence "violated deKoevend's due process right to a fair and impartial determination by the board." Id.

18 Priem advances similar due process arguments here. However, he argues that the remedy imposed in deKoevend-remand to the same board members who made the original decision, see id. -is inappropriate here. According to Priem, the Board members who voted on the ultimate denial of his license showed "profound" personal bias or prejudice against him, given that they were the same Board members who had previously denied his application in 2009. Priem cites section 24-4-105@8), C.R.S.2011, which provides that bias or any other disqualifying reason requires recusal of the adjudicator, unless "withdrawal makes it impossible for the agency to render a decision." He contends that we should reinstate. the ALJ's original decision to grant his license.

9 We are, indeed, troubled by the presence of the Chief Inspector during the Board's deliberations. However, we conclude that, given the particular situation presented here, we need not decide whether the Board's licensing decision must be vacated.

1 10 Were we to conclude that Priem's due process right was violated, as in deKoevend the remedy would be a remand. We are unpersuaded that, simply because the Board members here previously voted to deny his license, they are incapable of rendering a fair and unbiased decision. See deKoevend, 688 P.2d at 228, 229 n. 5 (remanding matter to same school board that had improperly allowed superintendent and principal to be present during prior board deliberations; noting that "[the board's function in this respect is not unlike that of a judge who, upon reversal of a previous decision rendered in a bench trial, is called upon to decide the same question upon remand of the case"); Copley v. Robinson, 224 P.3d 431, 437 (Colo. App.2009) (where due process violation was found in quasi-judicial proceeding, matter was remanded for new hearing before same sheriff who made previous decision); see also Watson v. Cal-Three, LLC, 254 P.3d 1189, 1192 (Colo.App.2011) ("What a judge learns in his or her judicial capacity is a proper basis for judicial observation, and the use of such information does not require disqualification. Thus, a judge is not recusable for bias or prejudice that is based on the facts and circumstances of the case, even where, upon completion of the evidence, the court is exceedingly ill disposed toward a party. Even an opinion as to the guilt or innocence of a criminal defendant is generally not a [1139]*1139basis for disqualification." (citations omitted)). Accordingly, if we were to conclude remand was required, we would remand to the Board.

T11 At oral argument, Priem's counsel conceded that if we were to conclude a remand to the Board is the appropriate remedy, Priem would waive that remedy because of considerations of cost, time, and the possibility of a future appeal on the same issues, and would ask us to proceed to decide the merits of the appeal. Thus, while we do not condone the presence of the Chief Inspector during the Board's deliberations, we proceed to decide the merits of the other issues raised in the appeal.

III, Merits

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2012 COA 5, 272 P.3d 1136, 2012 WL 19758, 2012 Colo. App. LEXIS 18, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/colorado-state-board-of-pharmacy-v-priem-coloctapp-2012.