203 P. 806 | Cal. Ct. App. | 1921
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 ofThrasher v. Board of Medical Examiners,
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 case, supra, that its order revoking appellant's license should be annulled.
The only function of the writ of review in this case was to determine whether the board exceeded its jurisdiction, and the sole question reviewable by the superior court upon the proceedings before it and by this court upon this appeal is whether the medical board exceeded its jurisdiction in making the order complained of. (White v. Superior Court,
This is to be found in the testimony of Dr. John R. Clark, autopsy surgeon in the coroner's office for the city and county of San Francisco, and in the testimony of Dr. Janus, who examined deceased when she was brought to St. Joseph's Hospital in a precarious condition. Dr. Clark testified that he had performed an autopsy upon the body of deceased on May 29, 1919. After a recital of the symptoms of peritoneal infection which his examination revealed, the doctor stated "that he found that the uterus and appendages and the upper portion of the vagina had been removed. It didn't have the appearance of being the result of a typical surgical operation; these organs had been taken out evidently in a hasty, unskillful manner, — that is, they had been slashed out and partly torn out; no sutures were employed; no suture material was found. There was also a ragged perforation or slit in the bowel in the upper portion of the rectum, the large intestine or sigmoid."
A detective connected with the police department of San Francisco testified that he had called upon Dr. Minaker at her office with relation to this case and that the doctor had handed him a specimen which was proven by other evidence to have been the uterus, tubes, and an ovary from the body of deceased, and that the doctor had told him that she thought this specimen was a tumor and that it had been passed by deceased in the doctor's office while deceased was upon the operating-table for an examination, and without anything having been done by the doctor. This specimen was brought from Dr. Minaker's office by the detective to Dr. Janus, at St. Joseph's Hospital, where Dr. Minaker had caused the deceased to be sent after her collapse. Dr. Janus testified before the medical board and stated in detail the condition of deceased at the time she was brought to the hospital; that the specimen from Dr. Minaker had been handed to him and that he had examined it and had found that it consisted of uterus, tubes, ovary, and part of the vaginal wall. He stated positively that the uterus was a *377 pregnant uterus. This specimen was later sent to Dr. Clark at the morgue, after he had performed an autopsy upon deceased; he examined it and stated before the board that the uterus "contained foetal products; that foetal products — that is, it contained a portion of the placental tissue." There was some other evidence properly admitted relevant upon this question, and it all stands uncontradicted in the record, for the appellant, although served with citation and a copy of the complaint, did not appear either in person or by counsel at the hearing.
[1] The above-quoted testimony eliminates any question that might arise were there an entire absence of legal evidence in the record, as in the Thrasher case, and it conclusively establishes the jurisdiction of the board to make the order complained of. Under such circumstances, any irregularity in the method of procedure in the matter of the admission of improper evidence will not be reviewed upon a writ of review. (Lanterman v. Anderson,
The judgment appealed from is affirmed.
Nourse, J., and Sturtevant, J., concurred.