State Board of Pharmacy v. White

2 S.W. 225, 84 Ky. 626, 1886 Ky. LEXIS 103
CourtCourt of Appeals of Kentucky
DecidedDecember 15, 1886
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 2 S.W. 225 (State Board of Pharmacy v. White) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Kentucky primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State Board of Pharmacy v. White, 2 S.W. 225, 84 Ky. 626, 1886 Ky. LEXIS 103 (Ky. Ct. App. 1886).

Opinion

JUDGE HOLT

delivered the opinion op the court.

Bessie W. White, of Kentucky, is a graduate of the Bchool of Pharmacy of the Michigan University, her' diploma as “a pharmaceutical chemist” being dated June 28, 1883.

The university is regularly incorporated. She applied to the Kentucky State Board of Pharmacy, on November 8, 1883, for registration as a registered assistant pharmacist; paid the required fee; exhibited her diploma, and even offered to be examined. They * rejected her application upon the ground that she was not a graduate of pharmacy within the meaning of the law, and refused to examine her. Thereupon she, by this suit, applied for a mandamus to compel the board to admit her to registration.

The Pharmacy Act (General Statutes, p. 993) provides :

“ Sec. 1. It shall be unlawful for any person, unless a registered pharmacist, or registered assistant pharmacist in the employ of a registered pharmacist, or unless acting as an aid under the immediate supervision of a registered pharmacist or a registered assistant pharmacist within the meaning of this act, to retail, compound or dispense medicines or poisons, except as hereinafter provided.

“Sec. 2. Any person, in order to be a registered [628]*628pharmacist, or a registered assistant pharmacist in the meaning of this act, shall be either a graduate in pharmacy, a practicing pharmacist, or a practicing assistant in pharmacy.

Graduates in pharmacy shall be such as ham obtained a diploma from a regular incorporated college uf pharmacy. Practicing pharmacists shall be such persons as, at or prior to 'the passage of this act, have .kept or continue to keep open shops for compounding ■and dispensing the prescriptions of medical practitioners, and for the retailing of drugs and medicines, and who shall have declared their intention, in writing, of keeping open shops for a compounding of prescriptions of medical practitioners and the retailing of drugs and medicines, and such other persons who, after the passage of this act, shall have declared their intention, in writing, to open a shop for compounding and dispensing the prescriptions of medical practitioners and for retailing drugs and medicines, shall have at least three years of practical experience in- the business, and shall have passed a satisfactory examination before the State Board of Pharmacy.

“Practicing assistants in pharmacy shall be such persons as shall have served five years immediately preceding the passage of this act in a shop or shops where the prescriptions of medical practitioners are compounded, and such other persons as have served three years’ apprenticeship in a shop or shops where the prescriptions of medical practitioners are compounded, have furnished a certificate of sober habits and good moral character from the county judge of the county in which he resides, and shall have passed [629]*629a satisfactory examination before the State Board of Pharmacy.

-s * * * •* * *

“ Sec. 4. * * * * Said board shall * * * * have power to make by-laws and all necessary regulations for the proper fulfillment of their duties under this act. * * * * The duties of said board shall be to examine all applicants' for registration, to direct the registration by the registers of all persons properly qualified or entitled thereto, and to report to each regular session of the General Assembly on the condition of pharmacy, together with the names of all registered .pharmacists and assistants pharmacists.” Wo have cited so much of the act as is material to the consideration of the questions involved in this case.

The second section enumerates the qualifications for registration in pharmacy. It recognizes two classes of persons, under the title of practicing pharmacists, who are entitled to be entered as registered pharmacists.

1. All persons actually in the business of pharmacy at the time of the passage of the act, and who may declare their intention, in writing, to continue in it.

2. All persons not then in the business, but who may declare their intention, in writing, of going into it, provided they “shall have at least three years of practical experience in the business, and who shall have passed a satisfactory examination before the State Board of Pharmacy.”

Persons of the first class are not required to submit to an examination as to their experience or qualifications. The same section provides, in substance, first, that all persons shall be entitled to be registered as [630]*630practicing assistant pharmacists, without an examination, who have had five years’ experience immediately preceding the passage of the act; and second, those who have served a three years’ apprenticeship in the business, and pass a satisfactory examination.

It is equally clear that all graduates in pharmacy shall be entered as registered assistant pharmacists. The board has no right to inquire into the qualifications of two classes of persons who may apply for registration; first, those who were actually engaged in the business at the time of the passage of the act; and second, graduates in pharmacy. It can not reasonably be supposed that the Legislature intended to enact a law requiring persons, who had then been in a business for perhaps the greater portion of a life, to pass a satisfactory examination as to it before a board of examiners, or else abandon it; and it is clear, from the language of the act, that if an examination is not required of this class, that then graduates in pharmacy of an incorporated college are also entitled to be registered without submitting to it. The second section expressly says what classes of persons shall be examined— expressio unius est exclusio alterius — and the provision in the fourth section, that it shall be the duty of the board to examine all applicants, must be held to refer to all those whom the act has already provided shall be examined; and this view is confirmed by the fact that there is immediately coupled with the provision the further one, that the board shall “direct the registration by the register of all persons properly qualified or entitled thereto.”

If this construction be incorrect, then all of the sec[631]*631■ond section relating to an examination is surplusage, as well as the words “or entitled thereto” in the fourth section.

It is urged that the act was intended as a police measure for the protection of the public from incompetent druggists; and that, therefore, it should be construed so as to require all applicants to be examined. Certainly this was its object, and beyond question the law is a salutary one, but until a comparatively late period there was no law whatever upon the subject in this State, and the business, like any other, was left to regulate itself. In some of the States the Legislatures have refused to legislate upon the subject; and in view •of legislative history upon the subject, it is reasonable to presume that our Legislature concluded that it was a sufficient step in advance to require an examination of all persons save those then in the business and graduates of incorporated colleges of pharmacy. It does not ■exempt the graduates of colleges of pharmacy generally, but only such as are incorporated and under the .aegis of the law.

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Bluebook (online)
2 S.W. 225, 84 Ky. 626, 1886 Ky. LEXIS 103, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-board-of-pharmacy-v-white-kyctapp-1886.