142 N.Y.S. 634 | N.Y. App. Div. | 1913
From a judgment of the Court of Special Sessions allowing a demurrer to an information upon the ground of insufficiency, the People appeal to this court. Such an appeal lies. (Code Grim. Proc. § 518; People v. Hammerstein, 150 App. Div. 212; 155 id. 204.) The information charges that defendant at divers times between January 1, 1910, and November 1, 1911, and particularly on specific dates mentioned, at a place within the county of Kings particularly described, “ did unlawfully, wilfully and knowingly, not being then and there a dentist licensed to practice as such in this State, and not being then and there registered in the office of the clerk of this county, * * * hold himself out to the public as practicing dentistry, and did unlawfully, wilfully and knowingly practice dentistry.” The Public Health Law (Consol. Laws, chap. 45 [Laws of 1909, chap. 49], § 194) prescribes who shall be deemed licensed to practice dentistry in this State, and the conditions upon which such licenses may be obtained. It also requires (§ 199) that every person practicing dentistry in this State shall register in the office of the clerk of the county where his place of business is located. A violation of these requirements is made a crime. (§ 203.)
We think that the demurrer was improperly allowed. Statements which, if found in an indictment of a grand jury, would be sufficient, are likewise sufficient for the purposes of an information. (People v. Hammerstein, 155 App. Div. 204; People v. Brown, 153 id. 234.) It is a practice, not an act as distinguished therefrom, with which defendant is charged, and which the statute forbids. Practice results from a series
Since the foregoing was written, the learned district attorney, with commendable frankness, has called our attention to a very recent decision of the Supreme Court of Kansas which, in construing a statute of that State relating to the practice of medicine without registration, held that said statute did not create a continuing offense involving a general course of customary conduct, but penalized each specific act of practice with which defendant was charged. (State of Kansas v. Cotner, 87 Kan. 864; 42 L. R. A. [N. S.] 768; S. C., 127 Pac. Rep. 1.) We think that case is clearly distinguishable from the case at bar. In the Cotner case the information contained fifteen different counts, upon eight of which defendant was convicted. One charged him with opening an office for the reception and treatment of patients, and advertising himself as qualified under the law to treat the sick and others afflicted with bodily
Jenks, P. J., Thomas, Stapleton and Putnam, JJ., concurred.
Judgment of the Court of Special Sessions reversed, and the demurrer for insufficiency overruled.
55 Greo. Ill, chap. 194, § 20.— [Rep.