Minaker v. Adams

LANGDON, P. J.

This is an appeal from a judgment of the superior court dismissing a writ of review and affirming all the proceedings of the board of medical examiners of the state of California in revoking appellant’s license to practice medicine and surgery in the state of California.

The action of the medical board was taken after a hearing duly and regularly had upon a complaint charging appellant “with having been guilty of unprofessional conduct under the 1st subdivision of section 14 of the Medical Practice Act of the state of California [Stats. 1917, p. 93], by . . . procuring, aiding and abetting and attempting, agreeing and offering to procure a criminal abortion upon a pregnant woman ... on or about the 28th day of May, 1919, in the city and county of San Francisco, State of California.”

Appellant’s contention is that the medical board received at the hearing considerable hearsay testimony and other

[375]

evidence not admissible. Reliance is placed upon the case of

Thrasher

v.

Board of Medical Examiners,

44 Cal. App. 26 [185 Pac. 1006], because of its holding that hearsay evidence is inadmissible in a proceeding such as this one. In the last-mentioned case, the appellate court annulled an order of the medical board revoking a license to practice medicine, which order was based solely upon improperly admitted evidence as to one essential element of the charge. That case involved the same charge as the instant case, and the opinion filed therein states that there was no sufficient evidence in the record before the board of medical examiners upon an essential feature of the charge, i. e., the pregnancy of the woman upon whom the illegal operation was alleged to have been performed, and that the only evidence upon that question was evidence which should have been excluded under the “hearsay evidence” rule.

It is contended by the appellant here that because the medical board received some evidence upon the question of the pregnancy of the deceased, which evidence was inadmissible under the holding of the Thrasher ease,