49 Cal. App. 2d 591 | Cal. Ct. App. | 1942
Petitioner seeks by writ of mandate to compel the Board of Medical Examiners to annul an order revoking his certificate to practice medicine as a physician and surgeon. The trial court sustained a demurrer to the petition without leave to amend. Petitioner has appealed from the judgment denying redress and discharging the alternative writ which had been issued.
Petitioner was charged before the respondent board with unprofessional conduct as defined in the Business and Professions Code, section 2377, in that on or about April-3, 1940, petitioner did “procure, and/or abet, and/or attempt, agree and/or offer to procure a criminal abortion upon a pregnant woman, to-wit: Mrs. Shirley Reece. ’ ’ Upon a hearing on this charge petitioner was found guilty. Attached to the petition filed in the lower court is a transcript of the proceedings had before the respondent board, including all of the testimony and evidence presented.
It is now claimed by petitioner that the evidence re[2]
After the operation Mrs. Reece was taken to the Los Angeles County General Hospital for treatment and it is now contended that the respondent board erred in admitting in evidence the records of the hospital concerning the ease. Dr. Heldfond, the resident surgeon at the hospital, testified that he examined Mrs. Reece on April 19, 1940, and that she remained in the hospital until May 13, 1940; that Mrs. Reece told him that an abortion had been performed on her on April 6, 1940; that she had had slight bleeding for some two days following the abortion and then was apparently well; that one week later she had chills and fever; that his diagnosis was post-abortal abscess; that he had made this diagnosis
Whether the hospital records were authenticated in such manner as to be admissible in accordance with the strict rules of procedure to be followed in criminal cases need not be decided, for an administrative board passing upon the issue of the revocation of a license to practice medicine is not limited by the strict rules applicable to trials of criminal cases. See In re Hardenbrook, 135 App. Div. 634 [121 N. Y. Supp. 250]; Matter of Danford, 157 Cal. 425, 430 [108 Pac. 322]. Moreover, we are satisfied that petitioner could not have been prejudiced by the introduction of the hospital records. The testimony of Dr. Heldfond fully informed the members of the board concerning Mrs. Reece’s condition while she was at the hospital. The basis for the use in the records of the words “post-abortal” was fully explained to them.
The judgment is affirmed.
Moore, P. J., and McComb, J., concurred.