Moran v. Board of Medical Examiners

196 P.2d 20, 32 Cal. 2d 301, 1948 Cal. LEXIS 225
California Supreme Court·Decided July 30, 1948·No. L. A. 20514, 20515·Published·Cited by 226 cases

Opinions

SCHAUER, J.

In February, 1944, respondent Board of Medical Examiners (hereinafter termed the board) licensed petitioner James A. Moran (hereinafter called petitioner) to practice medicine and surgery in California. Thereafter petitioner developed a general practice of his profession at Carmel, in Monterey County. In May, 1946, a special agent of the board filed a written accusation charging petitioner with three counts of unprofessional conduct in the prescription of certain narcotics and asking that the board discipline petitioner. Following a hearing the board, on August 16, 1946, filed its written decision and order that petitioner was guilty as charged, that his medical certificate be suspended for one year, that for five years immediately following the year of suspension petitioner be on probation and neither have in possession nor prescribe narcotics, and that the decision “shall be effective immediately upon delivery of a copy thereof” to petitioner.

On September 26, 1946, petitioner filed in the superior court in Los Angeles his petition for a writ of mandate asking that the court review the proceedings before the board, set aside the decision and order of the board, and order that petitioner’s license to practice medicine in this state be re[303] stored; an alternative writ was issued the same day. The individual members of the board, as well as the board itself, are named as parties respondent in both the petition and the alternative writ. On October 16, 1946, the board by way of return filed its demurrer and answer to the petition for the writ; and there was also filed in the superior court a transcript of the proceedings before the board. That court, after a hearing but with no evidence other than the transcript of the board proceedings, overruled the demurrer, made findings in favor of petitioner, and ordered that the decision of the board be annulled, that petitioner’s medical certificate be restored, and that petitioner recover his costs. The board has appealed from the judgment annulling its decision (L. A. 20514) and petitioner has appealed from the order of the court taxing his costs at only $31.60 and disallowing an item of $117 paid by him as the cost of the transcript of the proceedings before the board (L. A. 20515). We have concluded that upon the record and the applicable law the judgment of the trial court must be affirmed and that petitioner is entitled to recover the item of costs which was disallowed.

As grounds requiring reversal of the trial court’s judgment in petitioner’s favor, the board contends:

1. That the petition for mandamus was not filed within the time allowed by statute.
2. That the record of the proceedings before the board supported its decision, and the trial court had no power to set aside such decision.

1. Time for Filing Mandamus Petition

Section 11523 of the Government Code provides that judicial review of the board’s decision “may be had by filing a petition for a writ of mandate in accordance with the provisions of the Code of Civil Procedure. Except as otherwise provided in this section any such petition shall be filed within 30 days after the last day on which reconsideration can be ordered. . . . The complete record of the proceedings, or such parts thereof as are designated by the petitioner, shall be prepared by the agency and shall be delivered to petitioner, within 30 days* after a request therefor by him, upon the payment of the expense of preparation and certification thereof. . . . Where petitioner, within 10 days after the last day on which reconsideration can be ordered, requests the [304] agency to prepare all or any part of the record the time within which a petition may be filed shall be extended until five days after its delivery to him. ...”

Section 11518 of the same code states that the board’s decision “shall be in writing,” and section 11519 provides that the ‘ ‘ decision shall become effective 30 days after it is delivered or mailed to respondent [petitioner herein] unless: . . . the agency itself [here, the board] orders that the decision shall become effective sooner. ...” Section 11521 provides that the “power to order a reconsideration shall expire 30 days after the delivery or mailing of a decision to respondent [petitioner herein], or on the date set by the agency itself as the effective date of the decision if such date occurs prior to the expiration of the 30-day period. ’ ’

In this case the board ordered that its decision be effective upon delivery of the written decision to petitioner. Delivery took place on August 19, 1946, and consequently the board’s power to order a reconsideration expired on the same date, and the time allowed petitioner to file this mandamus proceeding expired 30 days later unless extended by other provisions of section 11523 of the Government Code. As noted hereinabove, the mandamus petition was filed September 26, 1946, or subsequent to the expiration of such 30-day period. Petitioner urges, however, that within 10 days of August 19, 1946, he “requested the agency to prepare . . . the record” of the proceedings before it, that he filed this petition for mandamus within five days after delivery of the record to him, and that therefore he acted within the time allowed by the provisions of section 11523, quoted hereinabove.

As originally filed on September 26, 1946, the petition for mandamus contained no reference to the facts which petitioner claims establish that the petition was filed in time. The board demurred to the petition on the grounds, among others, that the court “has no jurisdiction of the subject of the purported cause of action set forth or referred to in said petition,” that the petition failed to state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action, and that the petition was not filed “within the time permitted by law, and, more specifically,” within 30 days after the effective date of the board’s decision. With the demurrer the board filed its answer expressly admitting “the allegations contained in Paragraphs I, III, IV, V and VI” of the petition and denying all other allegations thereof. Thereafter petitioner, with leave of court, filed an amendment to paragraphs VI and VII of his petition. As amended, para[305] graph VI alleges, among other things, that the board’s decision “was made effective immediately upon delivery of a copy thereof to petitioner, and that said copy was received by petitioner on August 19, 1946; that on said August 19, 1946, petitioner requested respondent State Board of Medical Examiners, by requesting its duly appointed shorthand reporter, Ralph A. Sollars, to prepare a full and complete record of the proceedings held . . .; that on September 24,1946, petitioner’s attorney . . . received direct from said Ralph A. Sollars, via Railway Express, the record hereinbefore referred to and now on file with the above entitled court. ’ ’

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Moran v. Board of Medical Examiners, 196 P.2d 20, 32 Cal. 2d 301, 1948 Cal. LEXIS 225 (Cal. 1948).

196 P.2d 20 (Moran v. Board of Medical Examiners) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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