Sparks v. Board of Dental Examiners

129 P.2d 405, 54 Cal. App. 2d 491, 1942 Cal. App. LEXIS 382
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedSeptember 23, 1942
DocketCiv. 2733
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 129 P.2d 405 (Sparks v. Board of Dental 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
Sparks v. Board of Dental Examiners, 129 P.2d 405, 54 Cal. App. 2d 491, 1942 Cal. App. LEXIS 382 (Cal. Ct. App. 1942).

Opinion

MARKS, J.

This is an appeal from a judgment dissolving an alternative writ of mandate and refusing to order the Board of Dental Examiners of the State of California to reinstate the license of petitioner to practice dentistry.

Petitioner had been duly licensed to practice dentistry in California. He maintained offices in San Diego and employed Archie Bell, an unlicensed person, as technician.

In the fall of 1935 two accusations were filed against petitioner with respondent board. Four counts were based on alleged acts of Archie Bell in practicing dentistry between September 18 and October 31, 1935, in the office of petitioner and with his knowledge, connivance and consent. The other two counts involved unprofessional advertising by petitioner in a daily newspaper in San Diego.

Trials were had before the respondent board which found petitioner guilty on all counts and suspended his license to practice dentistry for five years after any court order affirming the judgment of the board became final.

Petitioner sought to have the judgment of the board reviewed in a certiorari proceeding brought in the superior court. An appeal from the judgment in that proceeding was dismissed. (Sparks v. Board of Dental Examiners, 25 Cal. App. (2d) 341 [77 P. (2d) 233].)

Petitioner then instituted this action in mandamus. He now urges three grounds for a reversal of the judgment against him:

(1) That it was error to deny his motion for a trial by jury.
(2) That he was entitled to a trial de novo in the superior court.
(3) That the counts based on the advertisement are too uncertain to inform him of the charges against him.

*494 Section 1090 of the Code of Civil Procedure provides that in cases of this kind the trial court “may, in its discretion, order the question [of fact] to be tried before a jury.” As the statute rests the question of a jury trial in the discretion of the trial court, we can see no abuse of that discretion in exercising it against the request of petitioner that he be given a jury trial. Petitioner argues this question upon the assumption that the trial judge must grant a jury trial when one is requested. The statute does not so provide.

It is now established that in cases of this kind the petitioner is entitled to a trial de novo in the superior court. (Laisne v. State Board of Optometry, 19 Cal. (2d) 831 [123 P. (2d) 457].)

This case is presented on a typewritten clerk’s transcript, and a short bill of exceptions, together with the clerk’s transcript filed in this court on the former appeal. This last document is voluminous and contains a transcript of the evidence taken in the hearings before the board. No question is raised as to the form of the record, so nothing need be said on that subject.

At the opening of the trial petitioner offered and the trial court received in evidence all of the testimony taken in the hearing before the respondent board.

Petitioner called Charlotte Ida Serginson to the witness stand and after two preliminary questions counsel for respondent objected to further testimony from her upon the ground, among others, that “it merely constitutes reiteration or a restatement of the testimony which she had given before the Board, this objection being premised upon the statement by counsel that she would in no way enlarge upon the testimony she had given previously. ’ ’ After considerable discussion the objection was sustained. It affirmatively appears from the discussion that petitioner did not expect to be able to elicit anything from this witness beyond that already in the record and before the court; that his sole purpose in calling this witness was “to enable the Court to see and observe the manner in which she testified in support of our contention.”

We have read the testimony of this witness. She was examined at length by counsel for petitioner and subjected to a searching cross-examination by counsel for and by members of the board. Her testimony was clear and she was not confused during the cross-examination.

*495 While petitioner was entitled to a trial de novo in the lower court, and was entitled to call witnesses in his own behalf and have them testify at the trial, we cannot overlook the fact that he himself introduced the evidence of Miss Serginson, taken before the board as a part of his case in chief and that he admitted that he did not expect to elicit anything new from her. Under these circumstances we cannot regard the ruling of the trial judge an abuse of the discretion vested in him of controlling the course of a trial and preventing encumbering the record with repetitious testimony.

Petitioner then called Mrs. C. Baker as a witness in his behalf. She testified that frequently during the fall of 1935, and between September 18 and October 31, she was in the office of petitioner as a patient. Objection was made to this evidence and a proffer of proof was made in substance as follows: That she was a patient of petitioner who did dental work for her; that she knew Archie Bell and knew that he was a technician and not a dentist; that Archie Bell did not attempt to do any work on her and that she did not see him do or attempt to do any work on any other patient; that the three operating rooms were open.

This summary of the proffered evidence demonstrates its inadmissibility. No part of this evidence was directed to the times when witnesses for the respondent board testified that Archie Bell practiced dentistry on Agnes Davis, the principal witness against petitioner.

Petitioner offered to prove by the same witness “the general lay-out of the office of Dr. Sparks.” Objection to this offer was sustained, and we think properly so, as the offer was too indefinite to add much to the descriptions of the office already in the record.

Counsel for petitioner then offered to prove facts of a similar nature by other witnesses. We can see no error in excluding such evidence.

Count three of the first accusation has attached to it a copy of an advertisement published at the request of petitioner. It is alleged “that the said advertisement is contrary to the said Dental Practice Act in that it constitutes and contains advertising statements of a character tending to deceive or mislead the public.” These allegations satisfy the requirements for pleadings in cases before administrative boards. (Homan v. Board of Dental Examiners, 202 *496 Cal. 593 [262 Pac. 324]; Winning v. Board of Dental Examiners, 114 Cal. App. 658 [300 Pac. 866]; Gustason v. Board of Osteopathic Examiners, 10 Cal. App. (2d) 436 [51 P. (2d) 1106].)

The advertisement set forth that petitioner was making a new porcelite plate with a new trubyte-mold; that the “new DR. SPARKS ‘PORCELITE’ Plate ... is the most comfortable and most NATURAL plate that is POSSIBLE to be made”, and goes on to describe the plate in the most glowing terms.

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Bluebook (online)
129 P.2d 405, 54 Cal. App. 2d 491, 1942 Cal. App. LEXIS 382, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sparks-v-board-of-dental-examiners-calctapp-1942.