Medical Properties, Inc. v. North Dakota Board of Pharmacy

80 N.W.2d 87, 1956 N.D. LEXIS 161
CourtNorth Dakota Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 19, 1956
Docket7609
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 80 N.W.2d 87 (Medical Properties, Inc. v. North Dakota Board of Pharmacy) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering North Dakota Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Medical Properties, Inc. v. North Dakota Board of Pharmacy, 80 N.W.2d 87, 1956 N.D. LEXIS 161 (N.D. 1956).

Opinion

GRIMSON, Judge.

This matter comes before the court under the .Administrative Agencies, Uniform Practice Act, Chapter 28-32. The Medical Properties, Inc., a corporation, hereinafter referred to as the applicant, petitioned the North Dakota Board of Pharmacy, hereinafter referred to as the Board, for a permit to establish, operate and maintain a pharmacy in the Dakota Clinic at Fargo, North Dakota, as provided by Section 43-1534, NDRC 1943, as amended by Chapter 290, S.L.1949.

The undisputed evidence shows that the applicant is a corporation organized in connection with the Dakota Clinic. The stockholders of the corporation are the manager and the doctors of the clinic. None of them are pharmacists. The purpose is to provide a pharmacy for the convenience of the patients of the clinic, especially the handicapped ones, so that they can have their prescriptions filled within the building if they desire. The pharmacy is to be operated by a registered pharmacist and under the rules provided by law and the regulations of the Board.

The Board denied the application for a permit on the ground that the applicant was-ineligible to operate a pharmacy or drugstore within the City of Fargo because its stockholders were not duly registered pharmacists as required by Rule (k) of the regulation of the Board, and further that the proposed pharmacy did not meet with the requirements of Rule (1) of said regulations and that no circumstances existed to waive such requirements.

The district court on appeal by the applicant found that the regulation (k) is not authorized under the statutes of the State of North Dakota, and, therefore, invalid and void; that regulation (1) is unreasonable and, therefore, invalid and void; that the determination of the Board denying the applicant a permit to operate the pharmacy is not in accordance with the law. The court, thereupon reversed such determination of the Board and directed that the permit to operate a pharmacy ’be granted to the applicant.

From this determination the Board appeals and assigns as error the findings and *89 conclusions of the court and asks for a trial de novo. The questions raised are the validity of Regulations (k) and (1).

The Board of Pharmacy is an administrative agency. Sec. 28-3201, NDRC 1943. Its duties are to administer the laws •of North Dakota regarding pharmacies and •drugstores. Chapter 43-15, 1943. It has authority to promulgate reasonable rules and regulations in conformity with the provisions of any statute administered by such agency and to prescribe methods and procedure required in connection therewith.

The powers of the Board of Pharmacy are specifically stated in Section 43-1510, NDRC 1943. Subsection 9 thereof gives it the right “to prescribe rules and regulations in regard to granting permits and renewals for establishing and operating pharmacies.”

In regard to issuing permits for operating a pharmacy the Board had duly passed Rule (k) which as far as material in this action reads as follows:

“(k) The Board of Pharmacy of the State of North Dakota shall hereafter refuse to grant a permit or license for the operation of pharmacies or drugstores in the State of North Dakota to individuals who are not owners thereof and who are not registered pharmacists in the State of North Dakota or to corporations which are not owned and controlled by pharmacists registered in the State of North Dakota, unless the issuance of permits to other individuals or corporations is a necessity from the standpoint of public health and welfare.”

.The Board denied the application because the applicant corporation was not owned and controlled by pharmacists as required by this rule (lc). The applicant claims that such regulation is legislative and beyond the power of the Board to enact.

Under the statutes the Board has power to make rules only for the administration of the duties assigned to it by the statute. The Board has no right to make a rule include any substantive matter not included in the statute under which it is acting. Any such new matter would constitute legislation.

The legislative power of the government is vested exclusively in the legislature. The legislature cannot delegate that power to any other body. It is a basic rule of administrative law that administrative regulations which go beyond what the legislature has authorized are void. Wilder v. Murphy, 56 N.D. 436, 218 N.W. 156; State ex rel. Rusk v. Budge, 14 N.D. 532, 105 N.W. 124; 11 Am.Jur., Constitutional Law, Sec. 214, p. 921; Crawford, Statutory Construction, Delegation of Legislative Power, Section 15, p. 24; Rhea v. Board of Education, 41 N.D. 449, 171 N.W. 103; State ex rel. Miller v. Taylor, 27 N.D. 77, 145 N.W. 425; 42 Am.Jur., Public Administrative Law, Sec. 100, p. 429; Manhattan General Equipment Co. v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, 297 U.S. 129, 56 S.Ct. 397, 80 L.Ed. 528; United States v. George, 228 U.S. 14, 33 S.Ct. 412, 57 L.Ed. 712.

Section 43-1532, NDRC 1943, provides who may engage in the drug business. No conditions of ownership are made. Section 43-1534, NDRC 1943, provides that no person, “copartnership', association, or corporation shall open, establish, operate, or maintain any pharmacy within this state without first obtaining a permit so to do from the board.” Section 43-1535 provides the proof necessary for the issuance of a permit. Some of those requirements are stated in Subsection 5 as follows: That “the person, copartnership, association and corporation applying for the permit or renewal is qualified to conduct the pharmacy.” (Emphasis ours.)

It will be noticed that in neither of those sections is there any limitation of the term “corporations.” The ownership thereof is *90 not mentioned. Any corporation may apply for a permit to establish and maintain a pharmacy under the statute.

The regulation attempts to prescribe the kind of corporation that may apply for a permit to maintain a pharmacy. It establishes a qualification for a corporation to own a drugstore not prescribed by statute. It malíes it a condition that any corporation applying for a permit must be owned by pharmacists. That limits the provision of the statute. It bars certain corporations from owning a pharmacy. The statute does not give the Board the right to make ownership of the stock a condition for the issuance of a permit to a corporation. The statute says that corporations irrespective of stock ownership may apply for a permit and operate a pharmacy if otherwise qualified. The Board has no authority to make a liniitation in that right of a corporation. It is a new feature affecting property rights and ownership and amounts to new legislation.

In 42 Am.Jur., Public Administrative Law, Sec. 100, p. 3S8, 360, the law on that matter is. stated as follows:

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80 N.W.2d 87, 1956 N.D. LEXIS 161, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/medical-properties-inc-v-north-dakota-board-of-pharmacy-nd-1956.