Court Opinion

ID: 9646652
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 13:06:04.135371+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:11:40.332486
License: Public Domain

KERN, Associate Judge,
dissenting:
I think we should decide the petition for review in No. 8-240 and that we should remand the record in No. 80-886, given the uncertain nature of the agency action we are asked there to review and the restraint always to be exercised by a reviewing court to avoid deciding cases on the basis of application of the Constitution if alternative grounds for decision exist — as is the case here.
The petition for review in this court in No. 80-240, which the majority disdains to decide, challenges the correctness of the respondent Board’s revocation of petitioner’s license as a registered nurse in the District of Columbia. I believe we have an obligation to the parties (and the community) to decide this particular petition.1 Upon review of the record of proceedings before the Board I am satisfied that its notice to petitioner was sufficient, the conduct of its hearing was proper and its conclusion to revoke her license upon the basis of the revocation of her license by Maryland, after hearing her version of the underlying inci*376dents, was supported by substantial evidence and not flawed by an error of law.2 Accordingly, I would deny the petition in No. 80-240.
The petition for review in No. 80-886 challenges a ruling by the Board on July 31, 1980, the meaning of which is not at all clear. The record is sparse, to say the least. It consists of a standard form of Application for Registration as a nurse, prepared, but not completely, and executed on July 9th by petitioner; a one-page Processing Check List that is incomplete; and, a two-paragraph letter by the Board to petitioner under date of July 31, 1980.
Petitioner asserts as the keystone to her argument in No. 80-886 that the Board’s July 31st letter constitutes an order of denial of an application by her for reinstatement of her license, but candidly and correctly acknowledges “the statute under which the Nurses’ Examining Board operated .... makes no provision for reinstatement or relicensing after revocation.” (Pet. for Review, p. 2.)3
Moreover, the Application submitted by petitioner in July 1980 to the Board omits any reference at all to an event occurring subsequent to the Board’s 1979 decision to revoke her license and upon which she now lays great stress in her brief: a probationary reinstatement by Maryland. Instead, petitioner attached to this form Application for Registration the transcript and record of the prior revocation proceeding. In sum, petitioner by the attachment to her Application appears to have been asking the Board to reexamine its 1979 revocation decision rather than to address post-decision developments.
In its letter of July 31st, the Board states, among others, that it “considered the nature of the charges upon which the Board revoked your license .... It is the unanimous decision of the Board that its original decision to revoke, rather than to suspend, your licensure was appropriate.” This suggests that the Board reconsidered on July 31st its earlier decision to revoke petitioner’s license rather than merely to suspend and concluded, upon the basis of the gravity of the petitioner’s misconduct, viz., mistreatment of patients, to reaffirm its decision of revocation. While the Board’s letter also does refer to petitioner’s “application for relicensure,” that application is not so denominated and refers only to the Board’s prior hearing which led to the revocation of her license.4
In short, the record before us in No. 80-886 leaves unclear the following:
Whether petitioner was seeking by her Application of July 9, 1980 (more than one year after the Board’s finding of misconduct on her part and conclusion to revoke her license) to have the Board reconsider its earlier revocation, the proceedings of which she attached to that application, or whether petitioner, one year having passed and her license having been restored on condition in Maryland, was seeking anew to be licensed by the Board; and,
Whether the Board treated her Application as seeking reconsideration and was standing by its original decision to revoke, or whether the Board was treating her Application as an application for relicensure and was denying it out of hand without a hearing, which would be clearly improper.
How the above questions are answered determines the appropriate scope of review by this court. Accordingly, I would remand No. 80-886 to the Board for further consideration appropriate to the changed circumstances.*3775 Miller v. District of Columbia Board of Appeals and Review, D.C.App., 294 A.2d 365 (1972).
I dissent.

. Petitioner devotes 30 pages of her brief to this petition.

. I reject petitioner’s contention that the Maryland proceeding of revocation was deficient and hence its findings were unavailable for use by the Board. See Nasem v. Brown, 193 U.S.App.D.C. 416, 421, 595 F.2d 801, 806 (1979). Contrary to petitioner’s assertions, the record in my view reflects a full and fair hearing in Maryland and a “final” order by the Maryland Board.

. When read in context, D.C.Code 1973, § 2-406, upon which the majority relies (At 373, note 5), for the authority of the Board to reinstate licenses that have been revoked is not applicable to the situation here since petitioner had not allowed her registration to expire and therefore was not seeking to have it restored after expiration.

.Petitioner in her Petition for Review refers to informal advice she received from the Board “to file a new application,” but this is not a matter of record.

. It is now more than two years since the Board determined to revoke petitioner’s license and she has resumed nursing at least on a probationary basis.