In Re Rust v. Missouri Dental Board

155 S.W.2d 80, 348 Mo. 616, 1941 Mo. LEXIS 467
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedAugust 22, 1941
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 155 S.W.2d 80 (In Re Rust v. Missouri Dental Board) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In Re Rust v. Missouri Dental Board, 155 S.W.2d 80, 348 Mo. 616, 1941 Mo. LEXIS 467 (Mo. 1941).

Opinion

*622 ELLISON, J.

The appellant, a licensed dentist, appeals from a judgment of the Circuit Court of St. Louis City revoking his license and certificate. The hearing in that court was de novo, on appeal from a like order made by the Missouri Dental Board after a hearing under See. 10071, R. S. 1939, Sec. 13566, Mo. Stat. Ann., p. 7486, pocket part. The assignments of error are: (1) that, the parts of said Sec. 10071-upon which’the proceedings rest'are so-vague and indefinite as to violate the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, Constitution of the United States, - and See. 30, Art. II, Constitution of Missouri; (2) -that the specifications of the-verified, written- accusation are similarly defective, state no offense under the statute, and did not give the board or the court jurisdiction; (3) that the evidence was insufficient to support the judgment; (4) and that the judgment permanently revoking appellant’s license inflicts cruel and unusual punishment, contrary to Sec. 25, Art. II, Constitution of Missouri.

Aii opinion was written in Division II, in which the- writer then concurred, overruling' the first of the above assignments — as to the validity of the statute — but sustaining the second assignment — as to the insufficiency of the accusation. This made it unnecessary to consider the third and fourth assignments. Leedy, C.- J., dissenting, the cause was transferred to the court en bane. On reargument a majority of the court have concluded the judgment should be affirmed.

• All the acts of which appellant was convicted consisted in advertising in a manner allegedly forbidden by said Sec. 10071. Among other things that statute provides (parentheses ours) : “Any dentist may have his or her certificate of registration or license,-' or both, revoked or suspended by the Missouri Dental Board for any of the following causes: ... 3. .For unprofessional or dishonorable conduct, '. •.- . Unprofessional .conduct shall include, but not by way of limitation, . . . (a) advertising,- directly or indirectly,- prices for professional services; (b) advertising, directly or indirectly, by means of large display, glaring light sign, or containing as a part thereof the representation of a- tooth,' teeth, bridge work or any portion of the human head; (c) employing or making use of, directly or indirectly, advertising solicitors or free publicity press agents. . . .”'

• In the hearing before the Missouri Dental Board, and at the be-' ginning and end of the circuit court trial appellant interposed a plea to-the jurisdiction, raising said constitutional questions because-of the vagueness of the statute. Though there is no formal entry of it, the court necessarily must have overruled the plea, because appellant- *623 was found guilty under each, of said three clauses of paragraph 3 of the statute. As already stated, he makes the same challenge here, contending the terms “professional services,” “indirectly,” “large,” “advertising solicitors” and “free publicity press agents,” as used in said paragraph 3 are vague and uncertain, have no well defined meaning, are not defined in the law, and their meanings are left to the idiosyncrasies of the varying personnel of the Missouri Dental Board and the courts.

Since these attacks upon the constitutionality of the statute require us to decide whether it is susceptible of any reasonable construction let it be said at the outset that both parties concede: the right to practice the profession of dentistry is a valuable right; and the statute authorizing the Missouri Dental Board to revoke a license thereto is penal in nature. But appellant insists that since the statute is penal it must be strictly construed, citing such cases as Diemer v. Weiss, 343 Mo. 626, 122 S. W. (2d) 922; whereas respondents assert it should receive a liberal construction because its purpose is to safeguard the public health, citing State ex rel. Horton v. Clark, 320 Mo. 1190, 1199, 9 S. W. (2d) 635, 638 (4), and State ex rel. Lentine v. State Board of Health, 334 Mo. 220, 234-5, 65 S. W. (2d) 943, 950. The latter decision held the expressions “unprofessional and dishonorable conduct” and “bad moral character” in the statute there involved were not so vague as to make it unenforceable; and that they covered any conduct which by general opinion and common judgment would be considered unprofessional and dishonorable, in addition to particular acts specified in the statute. [See also 5 A. L. R. 94, and 54 A. L. R. 404, note.]

What is liberal construction and what is strict, is hard to determine. It is said the latter is in the interest of those whose rights are to be protected. But among them, under the Constitution, is the accused. The fact that conduct denounced by a statute is flagrant, or its object wholesome, does not mean the defendant should suffer from the mere fact of accusation. On the other hand it is said strict construction prevents the infliction of penalties in cases not plainly within the statute, which necessarily means, not within legislative contemplation. The truth is that the meaning of the language of a statute is narrowed or broadened to conform to the legislative intent, as gathered from its entirety, history, purpose, etc. It was well said in Meyering v. Miller, 330 Mo. 885, 892, 51 S. W. (2d) 65, 68, quoting from Endlich on Interpretation of Statutes, sec. 329, p. 452: “The rule of strict construction ‘has lost much of its force and importance in recent times, since it has become more and more generally recognized that the paramount duty of the judicial interpreter is to put upon the language of the Legislature, honestly and faithfully, its plain and rational meaning and to promote *624 its object.’ ” Similarly, the mere term “liberal construction” should not entice the judicial mind into the legislative field.

Reading the law as a whole, we think the term “professional services” is sufficiently defined for the purposes of the ease by Sec. 10087, R. S. 1939, Sec. 13582, Mo. Stat. Ann., p. 7494, pocket part, which elaborately prescribes what shall be regarded as the practice of dentistry. The term “indirectly,” as used in the expression “advertising directly or indirectly,” has its usual and, in fact, primary meaning: not directly; obliquely; in a roundabout manner; dishonestly. [Webster’s New International Dictionary.] It means the same in law. [21 Words & Phrases (Perm. Ed.), p. 167.]

The word “advertising” as used in the statute, obviously aims beyond mere public speaking before civic or social organizations, as appellant speculates. It has been defined in many cases, the purport of which is that the term signifies giving public notice, especially by printed matter, such as circular letters, pamphlets, newspapers and magazines. [2 Words & Phrases (Perm. Ed.), p. 616.] It is a matter of common knowledge, and we can therefore take judicial notice of the fact, that advertising would also include such publications by hand bills, signs, bill boards, sound trucks and radio.

Appellant opines that the words “advertising solicitors” mean solicitors of advertising, and therefore do not make sense in their context. ’ But they may also mean solicitors who advertise, just as an advertising dentist would be a dentist who advertises. So also a “free publicity press agent” would be a press agent who obtains free publicity (not paid advertising) for the dentist.

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Bluebook (online)
155 S.W.2d 80, 348 Mo. 616, 1941 Mo. LEXIS 467, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-rust-v-missouri-dental-board-mo-1941.