65 N.Y.S. 531 | N.Y. Sup. Ct. | 1900
Upon a complaint made by the plaintiff, one Tito was arrested January 29, 1899, for practicing medicine in the county of New York without lawful registration as a physician. Laws of 1895, chap. 398. Tito was convicted by the Court of Special Sessions and sentenced to pay a fine of fifty dollars or be imprisoned. He paid the fine and the money was deposited in the city treasury, whereupon the plaintiff demanded the amount of such fine from the defendant, under section 153 of chapter 398 of the Laws of 1895, which provides that “ when any prosecution under this article is made on the complaint of any incorporated medical society of the State, or any county medical society entitled to representation in a State society, the fines, when collected, shall be paid to the society making the complaint,” etc. The plaintiff has been since 1890 a duly incorporated society of the State of New York, entitled to representation in the New York State Medical Association, which was incorporated in 1884, and the State association is the accredited society in the national body of physicians known as the American Medical Association. The plaintiff corporation meets all the requirements of the act of 1895, supra, and there seems to be no solid legal reason why it should be excluded from the benefit of its provisions. Association and society are convertible terms. The statute was not enacted for the benefit of any particular corporation, but for “ any incorporated medical society ” entitled to representation in a State society. It was passed to protect the public from illegal medical practitioners, and the more numerous the informers and rigid the prosecution the better for the public and the medical profession. The defendant urges that the act was for the exclusive benefit of three societies, the Medical, Homeopathic and Eclectic, because they are named in certain prior acts and possess certain rights which the plaintiff does not possess. If the Legislature had
Judgment for plaintiff.
