Court Opinion

ID: 9885008
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-10-06 03:27:41.771206+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:48:43.275344
License: Public Domain

Mr. Justice Davis, dissenting,' Tt is clear that wé have jurisdiction to consider this case on direct appeal. By motion to vacate the judgment, plaintiffs directly raised the question that the amended complaint properly charged a violation of section 2 of article II of the constitution of Illinois. The record before us reflects that a constitutional question was presented to and decided by the trial court. People v. O’Connor, 414 Ill. 51. The second amended complaint alleged that the plaintiffs have been and are being trained to treat human ailments without the use of drugs or medicines and without operative surgery by a system known as naprapathy and that the defendant refused to recognize such system and to give examinations to its practitioners. While this complaint was not a model of pleading, these allegations were sufficient to show an interest in the plaintiffs and a controversy between the plaintiffs and defendant who allegedly arbitrarily refused to recognize their system. The charge of discriminatory refusal to recognize this system for the treating of human ailments, certainly gave rise to an actual justiciable controversy between practitioners of the system and the regulatory officer. Chicago College of Osteopathy v. Puffer, 5 Ill.2d 441; People v. Witte, 315 Ill. 282; People v. Love, 298 Ill. 304; Ill. Rev. Stat. 1957, chap. 91, par. 12. Nor do I believe that the amended complaint was fatally deficient in failing to define naprapathy. It was defined in the amended complaint in the language of the Medical Practice Act, (Ill. Rev. Stat., 1957, chap. 91, par. 5(2),) as a legitimate system or method of treating human ailments without the use of- drugs or medicines and without operative surgery. It is also definéd in Webster’s New Century Dictionary as “a system of treatment based on the theory that disease symptoms are due to strained or contracted ligaments and disorders of the connective tissue and can be cured by massage.” While it may be contended that' the language of the complaint states a conclusion, I bélieve it more appropriate to treat such averment as an allegation of ultimate fact, which may be readily controverted by answer. The purpose of a complaint is to state the nature of a claim in such manner that the attendant issues may be clearly defined. The amended complaint here gave notice of the issue — that plaintiffs are trained practitioners of a legitimate system of treating human ailments, and that they have been unlawfully discriminated against by defendant. Neither the artlessness of their pleading, nor this court’s view of the merits of their position should deny them a right to a hearing on this issue. Mr. Justice Schaefer joins in this dissent.