Minnesota Academy of Chiropractors, Inc. v. State Board of Chiropractic Examiners

169 N.W.2d 26, 283 Minn. 474, 1969 Minn. LEXIS 1179
CourtSupreme Court of Minnesota
DecidedJune 6, 1969
DocketNos. 41302, 41303, 41304, 41305, 41306
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 169 N.W.2d 26 (Minnesota Academy of Chiropractors, Inc. v. State Board of Chiropractic Examiners) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Minnesota primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Minnesota Academy of Chiropractors, Inc. v. State Board of Chiropractic Examiners, 169 N.W.2d 26, 283 Minn. 474, 1969 Minn. LEXIS 1179 (Mich. 1969).

Opinion

Otis, Justice

Two independent but related matters are consolidated for review. The first is an appeal by the Minnesota State Board of Chiropractic Examiners from a judgment of the district court and from an order denying a new trial in an action brought by the Minnesota Academy of Chiropractors, Inc., in which the trial court held that a regulation of the board pertaining to testimonial advertising was invalid. The second appeal is from an order denying a new trial and a judgment of the district court setting aside an order of the board which revoked the licenses of four chiropractors, Drs. George H. Olson, Lee Charnstrom, Donald E. Shelton, and Norman L. Poquette, who were found to have violated Minn. St., 148.10, subd. 1(1), prohibiting any advertisement “wherein the term ‘cure’ or ‘guarantee to cure’ or similar terms are used.”

We have determined that the regulation in question is valid as applied to the facts of this case and the judgments of the district court are therefore reversed.

The statute on which the license revocations were predicated and to which the disputed regulation refers is as follows (Minn. St. 148.10, subd. 1[1]):

“The state board of chiropractic examiners may refuse to grant, or may revoke, a license to practice chiropractic, or may cause the name of a person licensed to be removed from the records in the office of the clerk of the district court for :

“(1) the publishing or distributing, or causing to be published or distributed, in newspapers, magazines, directories, pamphlets, posters, cards, or in any other manner by advertisement, wherein the term ‘cure’ or ‘guarantee to cure’ or similar terms are used; which is hereby declared to be fraudulent and misleading to the general public.”

In October 1960, the Minnesota State Board of Chiropractic Examiners conducted a public hearing for the purpose of promulgating and adopting interpretative rules to avoid violations of § 148.10. [476]*476Representatives of both the Minnesota Chiropractic Association and the Minnesota Academy of Chiropractors, Inc., were heard. As part of its presentation the Association offered a code of ethics which included the following:

“The use of case histories and testimonials in advertisements is not permitted as they carry with them the implication that the conditions described in the advertisement have been or will be cured by the practitioner.”

It was pointed out that professional journals such as The Chiropractic Educator and National Healthways drew heavily on testimonial advertising. Concern was expressed over the impact of forbidding such material. Nevertheless, on December 8, 1960, the board adopted the following regulation which respondents attack as invalid:

“Advertisements are designed to appeal to and obtain the attention of the public and are not designed, paid for or published with a view to close analysis by the reader at whose attention they are aimed.

“The law prohibits the use of the terms ‘CURE’ or ‘GUARANTEE TO CURE’ or similar terms, and declares such to be fraudulent and misleading to the general public.

“The use of testimonials, whether singly or in groups; or summaries of types of treatment or examples of treatment as used in the advertisers’ office carry with them an implication that the conditions described in the advertisement have been or will be cured by the practitioner and are fraudulent and misleading to the general public.

“The advertising by any means of Chiropractic practice or treatment or advice in which untruthful, improbable, misleading or impossible statements are made, is obviously contrary to the law.” (Italics supplied.)

It is the italicized portion of the regulation which is the subject of this litigation.

The declaratory judgment action was commenced in December 1966. The relief sought included a judgment that the board had exceeded its authority by the adoption of interpretative rules and [477]*477regulations; that the regulations were unconstitutional; and that they did not have the effect of law. The revocation proceedings were commenced in March 1967 by the issuance of citations alleging that the chiropractors in question, contrary to § 148.10, subd. 1(1), “did, at various times, during the year 1967, cause to be distributed publications containing testimonials thereby implying that the conditions described in the testimonials have been, or will be, cured by” such chiropractors.

In April 1967, the board accorded the chiropractors a hearing following which, in May, it made findings, conclusions, and orders of revocation with respect to each of them. It found that each had caused to be published and distributed a pamphlet prohibited by § 148.10 in that the pamphlet implied that the chiropractor could “cure” the conditions described therein. The board indicated it would consider applications for reinstatement within 30 days.

Appeals to the district court from the revocation orders were consolidated with the declaratory judgment suit. Both matters were submitted on documentary evidence without additional testimony. In support of its orders holding the regulation regarding testimonials to be invalid and setting aside the license revocations, the trial court filed a memorandum setting forth the reasons for its decision. It held that the statute “does not prohibit advertising which implies that a cure of a particular ailment was effected in a certain named instance by some named or unnamed chiropractor who did not sponsor the advertisement.” The court further stated:

“* * * There is nothing fraudulent or misleading in a statement that some other chiropractor did effect a cure of an ailment unless it be proven that in fact such a cure was not effected by that other chiropractor.”

The court felt that a representation that treatment had effected the cure of a particular person was no assurance that a cure could be effected by the advertising chiropractor. Finally, the court ruled that the action of the board in revoking the licenses was arbitrary and capricious.

[478]*478Whether the board exceeded its authority in prohibiting all testimonial advertising, we need not decide. We have no difficulty in holding that the testimonials distributed by the chiropractors whose licenses were here revoked did, in fact, violate Minn. St. 148.10, subd. 1(1). Clearly, the terms used in the testimonial advertising before us can only be construed as representing that chiropractic treatment elsewhere has cured specifically enumerated ailments and that the advertising doctor by the application of similar treatment is also able to cure those ailments.

At the hearing before the Board of Examiners, the chiropractors whose licenses were revoked testified that they mailed to patients and distributed from door to door a total of approximately 5,000 pamphlets. On the top of the first page of each was the picture, name, and address of the particular chiropractor. All four distributed pamphlets with the following testimonials:

(1) A testimonial headed “Able to Walk Again — After Chiropractic,” signed by a patient before a notary in Pueblo, Colorado, certified that doctors had tried everything in treating an injured daughter “to no avail.” After six or seven treatments by a named chiropractor, “she was on her own” and able to walk again.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
169 N.W.2d 26, 283 Minn. 474, 1969 Minn. LEXIS 1179, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/minnesota-academy-of-chiropractors-inc-v-state-board-of-chiropractic-minn-1969.