Court Opinion

ID: 9683059
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 13:21:35.124438+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:19:39.017900
License: Public Domain

DISSENTING OPINION
SMITH, Justice.
I respectfully dissent. The Legislature provided in Article 4563 ten grounds for refusing or canceling the license of an optometrist. The rule now under attack was adopted by the Texas State Board of Examiners in Optometry. In my opinion, each of the rules’ outright proscriptions has been added as a new ground to those enumerated by the Legislature for the revocation of licenses. Since the Legislature through the enactment of Article 4563 has definitely listed the reasons authorizing the Board, in its discretion, to refuse to issue a license to any applicant in the first place, and to cancel, revoke or suspend the operation of any license by it granted, any rule adopted by the Board must by its own terms be referable to or related to a specific provision of Article 4563. An examination of the specific provisions of Article 4563 and the provisions of the rules under attack leads me to conclude that each provision is an outright and independent proscription. The forbidden acts as stated in Section 1 of the rule are not by their own terms referable to or related to any specific provisions of Article 4563. On this point I can add very little to the holding of the Court of Civil Appeals, 401 S.W.2d 639. However, I do wish to emphasize that when the Legislature said to the Board that it may cancel, revoke or suspend a license for ten specific reasons, it negatived any other grounds that might have been permitted under general rule-making powers. See State v. Mauritz-Wills Co., 141 Tex. 634, 175 S.W.2d 238, 241 (1943); 41 Am.Juris. 172, Physicians & Surgeons, 44; Graeb v. State Board of Medical Examiners, 55 Colo. 523, 139 P. 1099, 1101, 47 L.R.A.,N.S., 1063 (Sup.Ct.Colo.1913). This latter case in*315volved a Colorado statute which assigned nine specific “acts and conduct as may justify the revocation of a license”. The Court held: “[qjuite clearly the causes designated in the statute are exclusive, and the maxim, ‘expressio unius est exclusio alterius,’ applies. * * * ”
The Board contends and this Court seems to approve the contention that the rule under attack does not add new offenses to those listed in Article 4563. Both the Board and the Court rely heavily upon our holding in Kee v. Baber, 157 Tex. 387, 303 S.W.2d 376 (Sup.Ct.1957). In considering and approving the Kee case, I was of the opinion and still maintain that the rules considered in Kee were specifically tied to and closely related to specific sections of Article 4563. The rules there involved were designed to implement rather than to add a new and independent rule’. Our decision in Kee stressed the idea and, in fact, the Court found that the board rule-making powers (emphasized by the Court in the present case) were intended “to vest the Optometry Board with authority to fill in the details relating to the proscribed actions.” [emphasis added]. My analysis of Kee leads to the conclusion that this Court was not holding in Kee that the Board could do the proscribing itself. In our case, the Board makes no contention that the rule under attack in any manner is enacted to fill in the details or in implementation of a prospective enactment. The Board is seeking, at the hands of this Court, power to make the proscriptions in the first instance and for such rules to have the force of law just as though the Legislature had included them in the statute. I respectfully maintain that an administrative agency may not enlarge the causes for which a license may be revoked or suspended. See Cherry v. Board of Regents of the University of State of New York, 289 N.Y. 148, 44 N.E. 2d 405 (1942). In Cherry, the Court held that since the New York Legislature has enumerated the reasons for suspension or revocation of licenses, the Board cannot, by adoption of rules, add to the statutorily enumerated grounds. The Court said in Cherry:
“[W]e have said that the Board of Regents’ ‘specific supervisory powers over the practice of dentistry * * * enable it, within reasonable limits, to prescribe canons by which conduct deemed by it, in the exercise of fair judgment, to be unprofessional and objectionable may, in the interest of rescuing that profession from vulgar commercialism, be banned.’ Matter of Dr. Bloom Dentist, Inc., v. Cruise, 259 N.Y. 358, 363, 182 N.E. 16, 17. The field in which that power may be exercised is nonetheless subject to restriction by the Legislature, and even within the field in which the Legislature has delegated to the Board of Regents power to prescribe canons banning conduct which it deems unprofessional and objectionable, the Board of Regents cannot by the exercise of that power enlarge the causes for which the license of a dentist may be revoked or suspended, as defined in subdivision 2 of section 1311.
⅜ ⅜ ⅜
“[T]he bill which had been introduced in the Legislature defining the grounds for the revocation of a dentist’s license included as an additional ground ‘that the dentist has violated the rules of the regents governing advertising or any other rules.’ That ground was stricken out before the bill was passed.
(t ⅝ ‡ #
“[T]he Legislature has, itself, specified the grounds upon which a license to practice dentistry may be suspended or revoked. The Legislature has not delegated to the Board of Regents power to create offenses which shall furnish additional grounds.”
Here again, I wish to emphasize that the Court in the present case has misconstrued its holding in Kee v. Baber, supra. We simply held in that case that the Board may enact such rules and regulations as would be consistent with the power given it under the provisions of Article 4556.
*316It is my position that the broad regulatory powers given to the Board in Article 4556 were to be exercised by the Board in a manner consistent with Article 4563. The Legislature has not only enumerated specific grounds for license revocations, it has also set forth detailed and specific offenses which would constitute violations of the Act. The Legislature has pre-empted the field of punishable offenses as well as grounds for license revocation. This action prevails over its general grant of power to the Board “to make such rules and regulations not inconsistent with this law as may be necessary for * * * the regulation of the practice of optometry and the enforcement of this Act.”
To further demonstrate that the Board is seeking rule-making power in the field of license revocation regardless of statutory limitations, I take up its argument that the Board has the same license revocation powers as those given to the Supreme Court and the State Bar. In advancing this argument, the Board fails to distinguish between the fact that the Optometry Act enumerates the reasons for revocation of licenses, whereas the State Bar Act does not do so. Article 320a-l, Sec. 4, subdivision (a) provides:
“From time to time as to the Court may seem proper, the Supreme Court of Texas shall prepare and propose rules and regulations for disciplining, suspending, and disbarring attorneys at law; for the operation, maintenance and conduct of the State Bar and prescribing a code of ethics governing the professional conduct of attorneys at law. * * * ”
The 46th Legislature enacted both the State Bar Act and the Optometry Act. The State Bar Act authorizes the Supreme Court to enumerate the grounds and procedures for suspension or cancellation of licenses and the means of enforcement. This is not true with the Optometry Act. Whatever its reasons for making this distinction might have been is beside the point; the fact remains that the Legislature in adopting the Optometry Act deliberately enumerated the .grounds for cancellation and revocation and set up by penal statute the means of enforcement. Therefore, the Board has no authority to add new grounds and new procedures for license revocations under the general powers set out in Article 4556. See Kentucky State Board of Dental Examiners v. Crowell, 220 Ky. 1, 294 S.W. 818, 819 (Ct. of App.Ky.1927); 2 Am.Jur. 2d 130, Administrative Law § 301; Cherry v. Board of Regents of the University of the State of New York, supra.
Respondents in their conditional application for writ of error and in a supplemental brief filed herein present additional points 1 for declaring the rule under attack invalid. I think these points merit consideration. In my opinion the rule is arbitrary and capricious and bears no relationship to the health and well being of the citizens of Texas. The rule is invalid because there was no substantial evidence to support a finding *317that the rule bears any reasonable relationship to the public health and welfare. Respondents pleaded in the trial court that the “rule is arbitrary and capricious in that it does not have or bear any substantial relationship to the protection of the public in its dealings with persons licensed to practice optometry under the laws of the State of Texas.” The Court of Civil Appeals quotes some of the evidence on this question. The record contains evidence concerning the care exercised in the selection of employee-optometrists by one of the Respondents’ organizations. This evidence relates to the educational background of the optometrists selected, the fact that they were licensed by the Board and their practical experience, etc. With reference to the “Professional Responsibility” phase of the rule under attack, one of the Respondents, who is also a member of the Board, testified:
“Q. Now, Dr. Rogers, when a man is employed, an optometrist in your organization, do you have any standing instructions as to how he shall conduct the practice and to whom his first and primary allegiance and responsibility is?
“A. Yes, we do.
“Q. And what is that?
“A. Well, number one, the man, as I mentioned is solely responsible for his action with that patient, for his — whatever he does or doesn’t do with regard to the patient and his sole allegiance, his sole responsibility, is to do what in his opinion is necessary or best or in the best interest of that patient or that patient’s visual care. This is the basis upon which all of our offices operate and this is the way a man conducts himself, just as though he were in his own office.”
The Board wholly failed to establish its contention that a person employed by another optometrist in a trade-name organization lacks professional responsibility to this patient. In fact this contention was refuted by the following testimony:
“Q. Now in all of your experience, Dr. Rogers, as an optometrist, and as a Board member, now something in excess of six years, I will ask you the point blank question, are optometrists practicing on a salary, or a compensatory basis, on a solely employed basis, and in a trade name organization such as yours, are they just as competent, just as sincere, just as diligent as those who practice solely or individually ?
“A. Yes, I think so, I sincerely do.”
The Respondent, Dr. Carp, also testified:
“Q. Doctor, let me ask you this question: As an optometrist, who is the primary responsibility of an individual doctor associated with you in one of your offices where is his primary responsibility, to you or to the patient whose eyes he examines ?
“A. By all means to the patient.”
There is a complete absence of testimony given by patients or others which even remotely suggested that the care given to patients in Respondents’ establishments located throughout the State was any less satisfactory to the patient, than the care given in the offices of individual practitioners. There is no evidence that the practice of optometry under trade or assumed names in multiple offices injuriously affects the public health.
It is argued that other jurisdictions have adopted rules similar to the one under consideration. Grant this is true, still the Board has made no showing that conditions were the same in each instance. There is no showing that the Legislatures in the other jurisdictions have refused to adopt the essential proscriptions contained irf the rule under attack. On the other hand, it is clear that the Texas Legislature has consistently declined to include in its enactments the unconstitutional proscriptions
*318contained in the Board rule now before us. A court cannot substitute its judgment for that of the legislative branch of the government. There is no provision of the Board’s rule here involved that bears any reasonable relationship to the public welfare. It is clear that the rule is advanced for the economic protection of a particular class rather than for the protection of the public generally. There is no evidence of any need for the regulation insofar as the public is concerned. Simply stated, the Board has failed to discharge its burden that there was substantial evidence in existence at the time of the adoption of the rule to justify its adoption. See Kost v. Texas Real Estate Commission, 359 S.W.2d 306, (Tex.Civ.App.1962, writ ref’d). Not only has the Board failed in this regard, but more important, it has, in adopting this rule, exceeded the authority conferred upon it by law. In striking down a regulation promulgated by a Board, this Court in Teachers Retirement System of Texas v. Duckworth, 153 Tex. 141, 264 S.W.2d 98 (1954) adopted the opinion of the Court of Civil Appeals, Tex.Civ.App., 260 S.W.2d 632. The adopted language which is applicable here reads:
“Even if it can be said that the regulation adopted by the Board making the last payment due on the last day of the month next preceding the month in which the beneficiary dies has the effect of canceling the exceptions to the common-law rule against apportionment which would otherwise be applicable to this case, we are inclined to agree with ap-pellee that the judgment must still be sustained because, as contended by her, the Board was without power to adopt and enforce the regulation. It has been held in this State that the Board of Insurance Commissioners can exercise only the authority conferred upon it by law ‘ * * * “in clear and unmistakable terms, and will not be deemed to be given by implication, nor can it be extended by inference, but must be strictly construed.” * * ⅜ ’ Commercial Standard Ins. Co. v. Board of Insurance Com’rs of Texas, Tex.Civ.App., 34 S.W.2d 343, 345, writ refused. And in like manner has the power of the Railroad Commission of Texas been construed.”
There is another reason which is perhaps greater than any reason thus far advanced to support the argument that the rule should be stricken down by the courts. The rule strikes at the fundamental right of an optometrist to lawfully engage in his profession. I agree with the Respondents that the rule impairs the obligation of contracts. Not only that, it is arbitrary and capricious in nature and has been adopted without regard to the law as enacted by the Legislature and in violation of both the state and federal constitutions. The rule amounts to a taking of Respondents’ property without due process of law. The rule has not been enacted for the benefit of the public, but to the contrary there is every indication that the rule has been adopted to protect the economic welfare of a few optometrists, despite the fact that the rule will place in jeopardy property rights which the Legislature has thus far chosen to safeguard. Some of the consequences of this unwarranted rule will be to prohibit the use of an assumed name in the practice of optometry and to impose strict limitations on the operation of multiple offices and the splitting of fees with employee-optometrists. The maintenance of 82 offices at many locations in Texas, at a cost of between $10,000.00 and $12,000.00 per office and at a cost of more than $1,000,000.00 in publicizing the assumed name “Texas State Optical”, so far as the record shows, means nothing to the relators, but it should have some significance to this Court in deciding the question of the validity of the rule. In this connection, I repeat that there is no evidence in the record which would tend to. show any public need or necessity for the rule. To the contrary, the rule arbitrarily interferes with private business in that it imposes unnecessary restrictions upon the *319lawful occupation of the respondents, Lawton v. Steele, 152 U.S. 133, 14 S.Ct. 499, 38 L.Ed. 385 (1894).
The Courts should not hesitate to intervene to protect the property rights of a citizen when it is discovered from a record such as we have here that a Board has exceeded its powers under the guise of the exercise of the police power of the State. This Court in the case of Houston & T. C. R. Co. v. Dallas, 98 Tex. 396, 84 S.W. 648, 70 L.R.A. 850 (1905), in considering the exercise of the police power, has this to say:
“The power is not an arbitrary one, hut has its limitations. It is commensurate with, but does not exceed, the duty to provide for the real needs of the people in their health, safety, comfort, and convenience as consistently as may be with private property rights. As those needs are extensive, various, and indefinite, the power to deal with them is likewise broad, indefinite, and impracticable of precise definition or limitation. But as the citizen cannot be deprived of his property without due process of law, and as a privation by force of the police power fulfills this requirement only when the power is exercised for the purpose of accomplishing, and in a manner appropriate to the accomplishment of, the purposes for which it exists, it may often become necessary for courts, having proper regard to the constitutional safeguard referred to in favor of the citizen, to inquire as to the existence of the facts upon which a given exercise of the power rests, and into the manner of its exercise, and if there has been an invasion of property rights under the guise of this power, without justifying occasion, or in an unreasonable, arbitrary, and oppressive way, to give to the injured party that protection which the Constitution secures.”
This Court supported its position with a quotation from Lawton v. Steele, 152 U.S. 133, 14 S.Ct. 499 (1894) which reads:
“* * * [t]o justify the state in thus interposing its authority in behalf of the public, it must appear — First, that the interests of the public generally, as distinguished from those of a particular class, require such interference; and, second, that the means are reasonably necessary for the accomplishment of the purpose, and not unduly oppressive upon individuals. The legislature may not, under the guise of protecting the public interests, arbitrarily interfere with private business, or impose unusual and unnecessary restrictions upon lawful occupations.”
In the case of Smith v. Decker, 158 Tex. 416, 312 S.W.2d 632 (1958), this Court held unconstitutional a statute which deprived citizens of the right to earn a living, a property right. In holding void the act there involved, we said:
“Appellants having a vested property right in making a living, subject only to valid and subsisting regulatory statutes,, and being prevented from performing their business otherwise lawful but for the statute in question, we believe that we are permitted under the rule announced in Kemp Hotel Operating Co. v. City of Wichita Falls, [141 Tex. 90, 170 S.W.2d 217], supra, to order the issuance of the injunction. There it was stated that courts of equity may be resorted to for the purpose of enjoining the enforcement of a criminal statute or ordinance when same is void and when its enforcement invades a vested property right of the complainant.”
The judgment of the Court of Civil Appeals should not only be affirmed, but this Court should go further and declare the rule unconstitutional.

. “STATEMENT OF RESPONDENTS’ CROSS-POINTS
“FIRST CROSS-POINT
“The rule is arbitrary and capricious and bears no reasonable relationship to the health and wellbeing of the citizens of Texas, and the Trial Court and the Court of Civil Appeals erred in not so holding.
“SECOND CROSS-POINT
“The rule is invalid because there was no substantial evidence to support a finding that the rule bears any reasonable relationship to the public health and welfare, and the Trial Court and Court of Civil Appeals erred in not so holding.
“THIRD CROSS-POINT
“The rule is invalid because the same would impair the obligation of contracts in violation of both the state and federal constitutions and would take Respondents’ property without due process of law, and the Trial Court and the Court of Civil Appeals erred in not so holding.
“FOURTH CROSS-POINT
“The rule is invalid because its arbitrary and capricious nature would take Respondents’ property without due process of law, and the Trial Court and the Court of Civil Appeals erred in not so holding.”