Lin v. Medical Board of California

Opinion

ORTEGA, Acting P. J. This case involves two licensed physicians, a husband and wife, who were fined $250 each for practicing medicine while [41]using names other than those under which they were licensed, for nonffaudulent reasons. We affirm the judgment denying their petition for administrative writ of mandate (Code Civ. Proc., § 1094.5).

Facts

The physicians received their California medical licenses in 1981 under the names Cheng-Wen Lin, M.D., and Tein Lin, M.D. (hereinafter sometimes referred to as their “licensed names"). Their licensed names were the same as those under which they had received Drug Enforcement Agency controlled substances registration certificates.

For nonfraudulent reasons, the physicians thereafter changed their names through general usage without court order. They called themselves, respectively, Charles Cheng-Wen Lin, M.D., or Charles C. Lin, M.D., and Cecilia Tein Lin, M.D., or Cecilia T. Lin, M.D. They did not, however, notify the Medical Board of California of their new names, which were not their licensed names. They used their new names on their professional letterhead, advertisements, and prescriptions.

The Medical Practice Act (Bus. & Prof. Code, § 2000 et seq.)1 provides that licensed physicians who later change their names may obtain duplicate licenses bearing their new names from the board’s division of licensing. (§ 2432.) Title 16 of the California Code of Regulations, which applies to physicians and surgeons, requires such persons to submit name change applications to the board’s licensing division: “. . . Any licensee whose name has been changed by court order or dissolution of marriage . . . shall attach a certified copy of the court record ordering the name change. At the time the change of name is requested, the original certificate of the licensee shall be returned to the office of the division so that an endorsement of the name change may be made on the division’s records and a duplicate certificate issued. A photograph of the licensee taken within sixty (60) days must accompany the application and be affixed to the affidavit form provided by the division.” (Cal. Code Regs., tit. 16, § 1332.)

Charles Cheng-Wen Lin learned of the name change regulation when he inquired of the board “many years ago” concerning the procedure “to change the name” on his medical license. He failed, however, to comply with the regulation at that time.