Lanterman v. Board of Medical Examiners

THE COURT.

From the record herein it appears that, following and in pursuance of a hearing had before the board of medical examiners of the state of California, an order was made by which the license theretofore issued to Dr. Roy S. Lanterman to practice medicine in this state was revoked. In due course, on the application of said Lanterman, a writ of

certiorari

was issued out of the superior court by which the jurisdiction of said board to make its said

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order in the premises was proposed to be tested. Following a return to the writ and a hearing had thereon in said court, in effect it was adjudged that the writ be and it was discharged. It is from such judgment that the instant appeal is taken.

The only question that is presented to this court relates to whether, on the hearing before the respondent board of the charges that were preferred against Dr. Lanterman, the evidence adduced was sufficient to support an implied finding that he had performed an illegal operation on the person of a young woman by which an abortion was produced. In that regard, it appears that the only evidence that was introduced with reference to the charge consisted in the testimony that was given by the young woman. In substance, the material part of her testimony was that “prior to the early part of December” she had had sexual intercourse with a male human being; that she could not remember the date, or even the month, in which such intercourse had occurred; that she menstruated in the month of October, but not in the month of November; that “she wasn’t feeling so well”, and that she had consulted a woman physician who had advised her that she was pregnant; that she “didn’t have much energy”, but that she experienced none other of the “symptoms” which ordinarily attend the condition of pregnancy; that “in the early part of December” she visited the office of Dr. Lanterman and told him she was pregnant; that he made no physical examination of her, but after agreeing with him upon his fee of $75, he told her to return on a later date to have “an operation and treatment . . . for pregnancy”; that nothing was said about an operation to produce an abortion, but that “that was understood”; that a few days afterward, in the forenoon of a certain day, she returned to a room in Dr. Lanterman’s office, and after removing her outer clothing, and while she was then clad in a “slip-on” only, she donned a kimono and went into another room, where, she was seated on a table; that Dr. Lanterman and his nurse were then and there present; that no physical examination was made of her, but that after she lay down she was given an anesthetic; that thereafter she knew nothing more until early in the afternoon of that day, when she recovered consciousness and went to her home; that thereafter she did not suffer anything ’more