McPheeters v. Board of Medical Examiners

168 P.2d 65, 74 Cal. App. 2d 46, 1946 Cal. App. LEXIS 1123
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedApril 16, 1946
DocketCiv. 3510
StatusPublished
Cited by24 cases

This text of 168 P.2d 65 (McPheeters v. Board of Medical Examiners) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
McPheeters v. Board of Medical Examiners, 168 P.2d 65, 74 Cal. App. 2d 46, 1946 Cal. App. LEXIS 1123 (Cal. Ct. App. 1946).

Opinion

MARKS, J.

This is an appeal from a judgment in the form of a peremptory writ of mandate requiring appellants to dismiss certain proceedings pending against respondent before the Board of Medical Examiners of the State of California, and from an order denying a motion to change the place of trial, and from an order denying a motion to strike out the petition which order is not appealable. (Code Civ. Proc., § 963.)

The record before us consists of a clerk’s transcript on appeal. Both counsel have gone outside the record in their briefs and arguments. While it is true that we may take judicial notice of the records of a public agency, as suggested by counsel, they should realize that we should be furnished with some official information of what those records contain as we should not he called upon to take "judicial notice of facts of which we are in actual ignorance. This is especially true in the instant case as counsel do not agree as to the contents of those records. We find the information disclosed by the clerk’s transcript sufficient for our purposes so we need take no steps to require appellants to disclose the contents of their official records.

The petition for a writ of mandate was filed in the Superior *48 Court of the County of Fresno on July 6, 1945, and contains a lengthy statement which we will briefly summarize.

Respondent was a duly licensed physician and surgeon who practiced in the city of Fresno. The individual appellants are members of the Board of Medical Examiners of the State of California, and John R. Walker resides in the county of Fresno.

On December 30, 1943, a complaint was filed with the Board of Medical Examiners charging respondent with two violations of section 2377 of the Business and Professions Code. A second complaint was filed on May 19, 1944, charging another violation of the same code section.

Respondent and his attorney appeared before the board as follows: February 7, 1944, in Los Angeles; June, 1944, in San Francisco; October 17, 1944, in Sacramento; February 26, 1945, in Los Angeles, at which time the hearing was continued to August, 1945.

It is alleged that at each of those respective times and places respondent was ready to proceed with the hearing but that no evidence was produced against him and he moved to dismiss the complaints, which motions were denied.

The alternative writ of mandate issued on July 6, 1945, was made returnable on July 27, 1945, at which time appellants argued a general and special demurrer, moved to change the place of trial to Sacramento County and moved to dismiss the petition because of lack of jurisdiction in the trial court. The court minutes of that day show that the various matters were argued and counsel were given twenty, twenty and ten days respectively to file briefs, the cause then to stand submitted. The minutes of September 5, 1945, show that both motions were then denied, the demurrer was overruled “and Petition for Writ of Mandate is hereby granted.” The peremptory writ of mandate was issued on September 8, 1945.

The record does not indicate that any default of appellants was taken nor that any evidence was taken in support of the allegations of the petition. There are no findings of fact and no judgment other than the minute order and the following endorsement on the bottom of the writ: “Let the foregoing Writ issue. September 8th, 1945. Dan F. Conway, Judge.”

The first question for our consideration is the correctness of the order denying the motion to change the place of trial, for if the Superior Court of Fresno County had no jurisdiction of the case, the other errors urged by appellants, and some of them' seem to possess merit, become unimportant.

*49 It is clear that the Board of Medical Examiners of the State of California is a public agency exercising governmental functions (Bus. & Prof. Code, §§ 100, 101 and 2100) and that it and its board members are sued here in their official capacity. (Reed v. Molony, 38 Cal.App.2d 405 [101 P.2d 175].)

It is settled that neither the state nor any of its agencies exercising governmental functions can be sued unless statutory consent is given to maintain an action against any of them. In State of California v. Superior Court, 14 Cal.App.2d 718 [58 P.2d 1322], it was said:

“It follows that the several passages contained in said section expressing the conditions and limitations concerning actions against the state must be complied with. It will not be disputed that when the state gives permission to be sued it may state the conditions under which such right is given. (Gill v. Johnson, 103 Cal.App. 234 [284 P. 510]; 59 C.J. 304.) As statutes conferring the right to sue the state are in derogation of the state’s sovereign capacity, such statutes will be strictly construed. (Westinghouse Electric & Mfg. Co. v. Chambers, 169 Cal. 131 [145 P. 1025].)” (See, also, Innes v. McColgan, 52 Cal.App.2d 698 [126 P.2d 930].)

It is held that mandamus proceedings are subject to the same rules as to changes of venue as are any other actions. (Bloom v. Oroville-Wyandotte Irr. Dist., 34 Cal.App.2d 102 [93 P.2d 164].)

The only statute called to our attention permitting actions against appellants is section 2109 of the Business and Professions Code which provides as follows:

“The office of the board shall be in the city of Sacramento. Suboffices may be established in Los Angeles and San Francisco and such records as may be necessary may be transferred temporarily to them. Legal proceedings against the board may be instituted in any one of these three cities.”

As the offer of the permission to sue the state or its governmental agencies must be accepted in the form in which it is given it follows that this action should have been started either in Sacramento, San Francisco or Los Angeles Counties and that the Superior Court of Fresno County had no jurisdiction of the case. The motion for change of venue should have been granted.

Respondent relies on the cases of County of Los Angeles v. Riley, 20 Cal.2d 652 [128 P.2d 537], and Boland v. Cecil, *50 65 Cal.App.2d Supp. 832 [150 P.2d 819], to sustain the decision of the trial court.

In the first cited case the county of Los Angeles sought a writ of mandate against the State Controller to compel him to recalculate the credits claimed by the county in cases of child aid.

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Bluebook (online)
168 P.2d 65, 74 Cal. App. 2d 46, 1946 Cal. App. LEXIS 1123, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mcpheeters-v-board-of-medical-examiners-calctapp-1946.