Opinion ID: 1500479
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Ophthalmologists' Standing

Text: In this jurisdiction we find a paucity of cases dealing with the issue of standing. Until recently, it seems that suit had to be initiated in the name of the person whose legal right had been affected. United Master Plumbers Ass'n v. Bookbinder Plumbing & Heating Co., 99 R.I. 683, 210 A.2d 573 (1965). In taking this position, the court cited 1 Chitty, Pleading ch. 1 at 2 (7th Eng.ed. 1876); Puterbaugh, Common Law Pleading & Practice § 12 at 8 (10th ed. 1926). The area of standing in the federal system of adjudication has been in a state of flux. However, it appears that our interpretation of standing to bring suit is consistent with the early federal approach to this doctrine. Prior to 1970, the federal test for standing had been phrased a number of ways, [2] but, in essence, for a plaintiff to be able to maintain suit, some legal interest or property right of his must have been violated or have been in imminent danger of harm. The United States Supreme Court, in seeking to dispel the confusion regarding the doctrine of standing, completely rewrote the law in two 1970 decisions, Association of Data Processing Service Organizations, Inc. v. Camp, 397 U.S. 150, 90 S.Ct. 827, 25 L.Ed.2d 184 (1970), and its companion case of Barlow v. Collins, 397 U.S. 159, 90 S.Ct. 832, 25 L.Ed.2d 192 (1970). The Court in Data Processing discarded the old concepts of legal interest [3] and special statutory protection as found in Hardin v. Kentucky Utilities Co., 390 U.S. 1, 88 S.Ct. 651, 19 L.Ed.2d 787 (1968), [4] and the other cases and formulated a two-pronged test. The two aspects of the standard laid down are (1)    whether the plaintiff alleges that the challenged action has caused him injury in fact, economic or otherwise, and (2)    whether the interest sought to be protected by the complainant is arguably within the zone of interests to be protected or regulated by the statute or constitutional guarantee in question. Association of Data Processing Service Organizations, Inc., supra, 397 U.S. at 152, 153, 90 S.Ct. at 829, 830, 25 L.Ed.2d at 187, 188. An analysis of Data Processing indicates that it has its genesis in the case law developed through the years as the Court determined who was adversely aggrieved for the purposes of seeking judicial review under the Administrative Procedure Act, 5 U.S.C. § 702 (1964 ed.Supp.IV). The Data Processing bi-partite formula is not binding on us and has been severely criticized by those favoring the single injury in fact test. New Hampshire Bankers Ass'n v. Nelson, N.H., 302 A.2d 810 (1973); Davis, Administrative Law Treatise § 22-00-1 (1970 Supp.). In fact, shortly after the beginning of 1974, the Supreme Court, in rejecting a class action brought against several Illinois officials for alleged deprivation of civil rights, stressed that Abstract injury is not enough. It must be alleged that the plaintiff `has sustained or is immediately in danger of sustaining some direct injury' as the result of the challenged statute or official conduct. O'Shea v. Littleton, 414 U.S. 488, 94 S.Ct. 669, 38 L.Ed.2d 674 (1974). It is quite apparent from a review of what has gone on both in the federal system and in the jurisdictions of several of our sister states that there has developed a much broader concept of standing than that which prevailed in the days when standing was measured in terms of legal interests or property rights. The position we are about to take is but a logical development of the past pronouncements of this court, having in mind that the ophthalmologists describe ch. 229 in such terms as unconstitutional encroachment on their right to practice medicine, class legislation favoring the optometrists, an improper use of the police power and a threat to the public's health, sight and well-being. In C. Tisdall Co. v. Board of Aldermen, 57 R.I. 96, 188 A. 648 (1936), the plaintiffs operated markets and delicatessens in the city of Newport. They were also holders of liquor licenses which permitted them to sell at retail bottled alcoholic beverages. They sought to question the constitutionality of an amendment to the liquor law which would effectively bar them from selling alcoholic beverages along with the other staples usually found in their establishments. The amendment limits sales to premises that were separate and apart from any adjoining market, concession or building. The court, after noting the amendment's alleged adverse impact on the plaintiffs' economic interests, ruled that they were entitled to a deterimination of the constitutional issues they had raised. Later, in McCarthy v. McAloon, 79 R.I. 55, 83 A.2d 75 (1951), the Tisdall holding is categorized as the protection of a property right. [5] An ophthalmologist, however, does not enjoy the same status as that which the law confers on the retail dispenser of beer, wine or liquor. The holding of MacBeth v. Gerber's, Inc., 72 R.I. 102, 48 A.2d 366 (1946), would have been dispositive of the ophthalmologists' amended complaint. MacBeth was one of a group of fellow licensed optometrists who were seeking to enjoin the defendant's alleged illegal practice of optometry. The court ruled that the primary goal of the licensing statutes regulating the practice of optometry was the protection of the public from the unqualified practitioner. Such statutes, it was said, did not vest a property right in the licensee. What was said about the optometrists applies equally to the ophthalmologists presently before us. The court in MacBeth did observe that the optometrists could have sought the aid of equity if they had alleged special damage, some direct injury to them rather than some suffering that they might share in common with the public at large. The optometrists' pleading had failed to particularize the requisite special injury. In dismissing the amended complaint, the trial justice apparently used the no-property right rationale of MacBeth. [6] We cannot fault him for his reliance on the rule of MacBeth. Within the past five years, this court in its consideration of what constitutes aggrievance under the Administrative Procedures Act has ruled that one competitor has standing to obtain judicial review of the administrative proceedings granting another competitor a license to locate and operate in the same community as the appellant. Newport National Bank v. Providence Institution for Savings, 101 R.I. 614, 226 A.2d 137 (1967). We said that [t]he better-reasoned cases hold that a person who is directly adversely affected in his economic interest by the administrative decision which he challenges has the required standing. [7] Id. at 622, 226 A.2d 142. This court has, on occasion, overlooked the question of standing and proceeded to determine the merits of a case because of the substantial public interest in having the matter resolved. Sennott v. Hawksley, 103 R.I. 730, 241 A.2d 286 (1968). The Newport National Bank case is the precursor of today's rule. It is our belief that standing can now be determined by our adoption of the first of the Data Processing criteria. The question is whether the person whose standing is challenged has alleged an injury in fact resulting from the challenged statute. If he has, he satisfies the requirement of standing. Accordingly, we will now examine the amended complaint in the light of our just-adopted standard of injury in fact, economic or otherwise. As we do, we employ the criterion for considering a 12(b) (6) motion which was first expressed in Bragg v. Warwick Shoppers World, Inc., 102 R.I. 8, 227 A.2d 582 (1967), and repeated countless times. The allegations in a complaint are, for the purpose of such a motion, to be taken as true and viewed in the light most favorable to the plaintiff and no complaint will be deemed insufficient unless it is clear beyond a reasonable doubt that the plaintiff will be unable to prove his right to relief, that is, unless it appears to a certainty that he will not be entitled to relief under any set of facts which might be proved in support of his claim. When we place the ophthalmologists' allegations alongside of the rule in Bragg, the answer is obvious. A reasonable inference to be drawn from the amended complaint is that the ophthalmologists are alleging an economic injury as a result of the Legislature's redefinition of optometry by ch. 229. Such inference satisfies the criterion of Bragg. In fact, when the trial justice dismissed the amended complaint, he observed that the entire purpose of the ophthalmologists' complaint was protection of their economic interest. We believe our holding to be consistent with recent decisions by the Supreme Court liberalizing standing requirements to the point of allowing certain suits to protect the public interest. Despite its liberality, the Court insists that the representative must still allege his personal stake in the controversy  his own injury in fact  before he will have standing to assert the broader claims of the public at large. United States v. Students Challenging Regulatory Agency Procedures, 412 U.S. 669, 93 S.Ct. 2405, 37 L.Ed.2d 254 (1973); S. v. D., 410 U.S. 614, 93 S.Ct. 1146, 35 L.Ed.2d 536 (1973); Doe v. Bolton, 410 U.S. 179, 93 S.Ct. 739, 35 L.Ed.2d 201 (1973); Sierra Club v. Morton, 405 U.S. 727, 92 S.Ct. 1361, 31 L.Ed.2d 636 (1972); Eisenstadt v. Baird, 405 U.S. 438, 92 S.Ct. 1029, 31 L.Ed.2d 349 (1972). [8] We emphasize that the ophthalmologists have standing only because of their own injury. They do not satisfy our standing requirements on the basis of any asserted injury to their patients. However, we stress that once their standing has been established, they may present the broader claims of the public at large. The ophthalmologists' assertion that they have instituted this suit as a class action in behalf of their patients merits a brief comment. Their concern for the public health is laudatory. However, the patient class-action aspect of their suit runs afoul of the requirements of Super. R. Civ. P. 23. A prerequisite of a properly maintainable class action is a plaintiff who is a member of the class he purportedly represents. 3B Moore, Federal Practice ¶ 23.04 (2d ed. 1974); 7 Wright & Miller, Federal Practice & Procedure § 1761 (1972). The ophthalmologists, because they are ophthalmologists, cannot qualify as patients and they are not, therefore, a member of the class which they seek to represent. Unlike the United States Constitution, there is no express language in the Rhode Island constitution which confines the exercise of our judicial power to actual cases and controversies. Despite our broadening of the concept of standing, we will not render advisory opinions or function in the abstract. Litigation will be confined to those appropriate situations where the litigant's concern with the subject matter evidences a real adverseness, i.e., his own injury in fact. However, the pleadings must be something more than an ingenious exercise in the conceivable. Cf. United States v. Students Challenging Regulatory Agency Procedures, supra . The allegations must be capable of proof at trial. The plaintiffs' appeal is sustained in part and denied in part. The case is remitted to the Superior Court for further proceedings in accordance with this opinion.