State v. Hopkins

166 P. 304, 54 Mont. 52, 1917 Mont. LEXIS 81
CourtMontana Supreme Court
DecidedJuly 2, 1917
DocketNo. 3,980
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 166 P. 304 (State v. Hopkins) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Montana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Hopkins, 166 P. 304, 54 Mont. 52, 1917 Mont. LEXIS 81 (Mo. 1917).

Opinion

MR. CHIEF JUSTICE BRANTLY

delivered the opinion of the court.

The defendant was convicted of a misdemeanor committed by engaging in the practice of osteopathy “under and by the name of chiropractic or chiropractor” for compensation without first having obtained a license from 'the state board of osteopathic examiners. He has appealed from the judgment and an order denying him a new trial.

1. The first contention is that the conviction cannot be [1] sustained because, if it was the intention of the legislature, in enacting the provisions of the Revised Codes relating to the practice of osteopathy, to include in their meaning one engaged in practicing of healing as a chiropractor, they are repugnant to section 23, Article Y, of the Constitution of Montana, and therefore void in this: That there is not found in the title of the bills by which these provisions were enacted any mention of chiropractors or those engaged in the practice of chiropractic. A brief history of this legislation will be found in State v. Dodd, 51 Mont. 100, 149 Pac. 481. By reference to the Acts of 3905 (Laws 1905, Chap. 51, p. 106), and 1907 (Laws 1907, Chap. 112, p. 283) the purpose of the legislature becomes apparent. The Act of 1905 supplanted the origina] Act of 1901 on the same subject. Neither of these defined the term “osteopathy” or the expression “practicing osteopathy,” the legislature assuming that both the term and the expression were well understood and did not include the practice of medicine or surgery. The purpose of the Act of 1907 was to amend sections 8 and 12 of the [57]*57law of 1905 by increasing the penalty for a violation of it, and to define specifically the expression “practicing osteopathy” in order to indicate clearly the meaning of it and to distinguish it from the practice of medicine or surgery which are regulated by other provisions on the subject. (Rev. Codes, secs. 1585-1593.) The Acts of 1905 and 1907 appear in the Revised Codes as sections 159A-1606, inclusive; sections 1601 and 1605 being the amended sections. Upon a comparison of the definition of the expression “practicing osteopathy” found in section 1605 with the accepted definition of the expression “practicing chiropractic,” it is clear that the practice of the latter comes within the purview of the legislation. Section 1605 reads: “Every person shall be deemed practicing osteopathy within the meaning of this Act who shall (a) attend to, or use in connection with his or her name the words ‘Doctor of Osteopathy, or Diplomat of Osteopathy, or Osteopath, or Osteopathist, or Osteopathic Practitioner, or Osteopathic Physician, ’ or words of like import, or any abbreviation thereof, or the letters ‘D. O.,’ or who shall (b) profess publicly to, or who shall, either on his own behalf, in his own name, or in his trade name, or in behalf of any other person, corporation, association, partnership, either as manager, bookkeeper, practitioner, or agent, treat, cure, alleviate or relieve any ailment or disease of either mind or body or cure or relieve any fracture or misplacement or abnormal condition or bodily injury or deformity, by any treatment, or manipulation or method of manipulating a human body or any of its limbs, muscles or parts, by the use of the hands, or mechanical appliances, in an effort or attempt to relieve any pressure, obstruction, misplacement or defect, in any bone, muscle, ligament, nerve, vessel, organ or part of the body, after having received, or with the intent or expectation of receiving therefor either directly or indirectly any bonus, gift or compensation whatsoever: Provided, however, that nothing in this section shall be construed to restrain or restrict any legally licensed physician or surgeon in the practice of his profession.”

[58]*58In Webster’s New Standard Dictionary “chiropractic” is defined as: “A system of the practice of adjusting the joints, especially of the spine, by hand for the curing of disease.” We gather from the brief of counsel that one who practices the system is technically designated as a “chiropractor.”

The legislature in formulating the definition in section 1605, supra, manifested the intention to make the regulations applicable to the practice of osteopathy equally applicable to every branch of the healing art by the use of the hands, by whatever name the practitioner might call himself or apply to, the system. Since this definition is broad enough to include the system of chiropractic, the inference is necessary that the legislature intended to include it, whether it was a matter of common knowledge or not.

The title of the Act of 1905 is the following: “An Act to regulate the practice of osteopathy in the state of Montana, and to license osteopaths to practice in the state, and to establish a board of osteopathic examiners, and to punish persons violating the provisions of this Act, and to repeal House Bill No. 38 of the 7th Legislative Assembly of the state of Montana, approved Feb. 26, 1901.”

The following is the title of the amendatory Act: “An Act to amend sections 8 and 12 of chapter 51, Laws of 1905, relating to the practice of osteopathy contrary to law in the state of Montana, and providing a penalty therefor, and defining what evidence shall be deemed sufficient to constitute the practice of osteopathy.”

The provision of the Constitution invoked by counsel has so frequently been considered and its scope and meaning declared by this court that it would be a work of supererogation to enter upon a discussion of it again. In brief, it may be stated that its purpose is to prevent fraud and deception in the enactment of legislation, and to this end to require that every bill introduced in the legislature must relate to a single subject which shall be so clearly expressed in a title prefixed to it that both the members of the legislature and the public may understand [59]*59the object to be accomplished by it. (State v. Anaconda C. Min. Co., 23 Mont. 498, 59 Pac. 854; State v. McKinney, 29 Mont. 375, 1 Ann. Cas. 579, 74 Pac. 1095, and cases cited; Yegen v. Board of County Commrs., 34 Mont. 79, 85 Pac. 740.)

The title of the Act of 1905 discloses that the subject of the proposed legislation was the regulation of the practice of osteopathy. The title of the amendatory Act also refers exclusively to the practice of osteopathy, and indicates that it was •the intention of the legislature to define what that expression was intended to include. That this definition includes the practice of chiropractic and applies to chiropractors is no valid objection to it. It meets the requirement of the provision of the Constitution relied on and is valid.

2. We notice next the contention that these provisions are [2] invalid because they are arbitrary and unreasonable class legislation. It is said that the proviso in section 1605 permits a regularly licensed practitioner of medicine or surgery to practice osteopathy without a license from the state board of osteopathic examiners, whereas it prohibits everyone else from doing so without a license, and hence is repugnant to section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States, which guarantees the equal protection of the laws. In the case of State v. Dodd, supra, the contention was made that the proviso found in section 1591 of the statute, relating to the practice of medicine, denies to every person, except an osteopath, the right to practice medicine or surgery without a license while it permits him to practice it.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
166 P. 304, 54 Mont. 52, 1917 Mont. LEXIS 81, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-hopkins-mont-1917.