Gross v. Molony

WOOD, J. Petitioner has been for many years practicing in the city of Los Angeles a system of healing known as naturopathy. He seeks by this proceeding to secure a writ of mandate directing respondent board of medical examiners of the State of California to set aside and dismiss charges of unprofessional conduct which were filed against him and to refrain from preventing him from prescribing for patients in the manner set forth in his petition. The superior court sustained the demurrer of the respondents and dismissed the petition for the writ. From this order the appeal is prosecuted. Attached to the petition for the writ as exhibits are copies of two complaints which had been filed with the board and a statement of all the evidence received by the board at the hearing upon the charges. The board found petitioner guilty of the violation of section 2378 of the Business and Professions Code and placed him on probation for the térm of three years.

Petitioner now contends that respondent board is without jurisdiction over naturopaths and has no authority to place him on probation or to revoke his license. Before 1909 no statute was in force providing for the licensing of naturopaths. It was provided in chapter 276 of the Statutes of 1909 that any person holding “an unrevoked certificate” issued by the board of examiners of the Association of Naturo[177]paths of California, incorporated under the laws Of the State of California, August 8, 1904, and who shall have practiced naturopathy prior to the passage of the act should continue to be entitled to practice naturopathy and that the board of medical examiners should endorse their certificates within six months from the date of the passage of the act. It was also therein provided: ‘ ‘ But all certificates herein mentioned may be revoked for any unprofessional conduct, in the same manner and upon the same grounds as if they had been issued under this act. ’ ’ Naturopathy was not defined in the statutes of 1909.

The legislature in 1913 enacted chapter 354 of the statutes of that year, which repealed the Medical Practice Act theretofore existing, created a new board of medical examiners, and for the first time provided for the issuance of licenses to so-called drugless practitioners. In this law the provisions relating to naturopaths were eliminated, and since its enactment persons who desire to be licensed to engage in drugless methods of healing, such as naturopathy, must secure a drugless practitioner’s certificate from the board of medical examiners. The Medical Practice Act was codified in the year 1937 and became a part of the Business and Professions Code.