Staley v. Board of Medical Examiners

240 P.2d 61, 109 Cal. App. 2d 1, 1952 Cal. App. LEXIS 1790
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedJanuary 29, 1952
DocketCiv. 18637
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 240 P.2d 61 (Staley 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
Staley v. Board of Medical Examiners, 240 P.2d 61, 109 Cal. App. 2d 1, 1952 Cal. App. LEXIS 1790 (Cal. Ct. App. 1952).

Opinion

DRAPEAU, J.

By his complaint for declaratory and injunctive relief, plaintiff alleges that defendant board has filed a complaint with the office of the city attorney of Los Angeles charging him with a violation of section 2141 of the Business and Professions Code which reads as follows:

“Any person, who practices or attempts to practice, or who advertises or holds himself out as practicing, any system or mode of treating the sick or afflicted in this State, or who diagnoses, treats, operates for, or prescribes for any ailment, blemish, deformity, disease, disfigurement, disorder, injury, or other mental or physical condition of any person, without having at the time of so doing a valid, unrevoked certificate as provided in this chapter, is guilty of a misdemeanor.”
Section 2148 of the same code exempts from the operation of section 2141 “the manufacture, the recommendation or the sale of either corrective shoes or appliances for the human feet.”

Plaintiff contends that under the terms of section 2148, supra, he is permitted to take an impression of customers’ feet by means of a pedograph, to suggest the type of corrective shoes or appliances the customers need, to give his reasons therefor, and to point out to customers the manifest abnormalities of their feet in connection with his recommendations and sales of such shoes and appliances without obtaining a license from defendant board.

*3 By its judgment the trial court decreed “that plaintiff has the right to carry on his business of manufacturing, recommending and selling corrective shoes and appliances for the human feet without obtaining a certificate from defendant Board . . . ; that the plaintiff has the right, in carrying on such business, to use a mechanical device known as a pedograph, to read the imprint made by such pedograph and upon the basis thereof, to recommend the purchase by prospective customers of corrective shoes or appliances for the feet of such customers; and in connection with such recommendation, to point out to such customers the manifest abnormalities of their feet and state to them his reasons for making such a recommendation; that such acts by plaintiff shall not be interpreted and construed by defendant Board . . . as a ‘diagnosis’ in violation of Section 2141 of the Business and Professions Code of the State of California.

“It is further ordered, adjudged and decreed that the defendant Board ... be and it is hereby permanently enjoined and restrained from:

“ (a) interfering with the right of the plaintiff to carry on the business of manufacturing, recommending and selling corrective shoes and appliances for the human feet;

“(b) interfering with the right of the plaintiff in carrying on such business, to use a mechanical device known as a pedograph, to read the imprint made by such pedograph and upon the basis thereof, to recommend the purchase by prospective customers of corrective shoes or appliances for the feet of such customers, and in connection with such recommendation, to point out to such customers the manifest abnormalities of their feet and to state to them his reasons for making such a recommendation;

“(c) from annoying, harassing or threatening to prosecute the plaintiff and from filing and prosecuting criminal complaints against the plaintiff on account of any of the foregoing acts.”

Defendant board appeals from the judgment, urging that “The law permitting the recommendation of appliances for the human feet does not directly or by implication authorize the diagnosis of a physical ailment or condition without a license.”

In this connection, appellant points out that respondent testified at the trial that he never told his customers what was wrong with their feet, but had them try several samples *4 of arch supports, and when one was found that was comfortable, he proceeded to make a pair to order. That, on the other hand, one of the investigators for the board testified that respondent told her exactly what was wrong with her feet, to wit: that the trouble was in the heel and a long arch; that the arch slid or rolled forward, causing the feet to be out of line, which was apt to result in backache or some sacroiliac trouble. And that the other investigator testified that respondent told her that her metatarsals were in bad shape and that “whether you know it or not, you are a subject for neuritis because you are injuring the nerves, the nerve endings in your feet, by walking on these metatarsals.”

This evidence, says appellant, shows that “respondent did not confine his sales talk to ‘a recommendation’ but on the contrary attempted to diagnose and tell the investigators of the Board exactly and precisely what was wrong with their feet. In doing so he went beyond the scope permitted by sections 2148 and 2141.”

It should not be overlooked that this is a civil proceeding, initiated under section 1060, Code of Civil Procedure, by which respondent seeks a declaration of his rights and duties under sections 2141 and 2148, supra, together with an interpretation of the meaning of those sections.

Upon the issues duly joined and heard, the trial court found that section 2148 “specifically exempts from the term ‘ diagnose ’ as used in said section 2141, the acts of plaintiff in connection with recommending and selling corrective shoes and appliances.” The court then concluded that respondent “has the right ... to recommend the purchase by prospective customers of corrective shoes and appliances . . . and in connection with such recommendation, to point out to such customers the manifest abnormalities of their feet and state to them his reasons for making such a recommendation; that such acts by plaintiff should not be interpreted and construed by the defendant Board as a ‘diagnosis’ in violation of section 2141 of the Business and Professions Code of the State of California.” (Italics added.)

Both sides cite the case of People v. Dr. Scholl’s Foot Comfort Shops, Inc. (1938), 277 N.Y. 151 [13 N.E.2d 750, 753], wherein it was stated: “Clearly the use of the pedograph as a mechanical aid in determining the proper size of the shoe required does not constitute the practice of chiropody. Whether the statements by the salesman, in answer to the *5 inquiries of the customer, constituted a diagnosis, is a more difficult question.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
240 P.2d 61, 109 Cal. App. 2d 1, 1952 Cal. App. LEXIS 1790, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/staley-v-board-of-medical-examiners-calctapp-1952.