Gromis
Gromis v. Medical Board
Opinion
Lead Opinion
Dossee, J.
In this administrative mandamus action, the question is whether the Medical Board of California (Medical Board) may discipline a physician who dated and engaged in consensual sexual activity with a patient.
Procedural History
In June 1989, an accusation was filed by the Board of Medical Quality Assurance charging Michael William Gromis, M.D., with unprofessional conduct in that he engaged in sexual activity with a patient, in violation of section 726 of the Business and Professions Code. 1 The matter was heard by an administrative law judge (ALJ) from the Office of Administrative Hearings, who concluded that cause for discipline had been established and ordered Dr. Gromis’s license to practice medicine revoked, with the revocation stayed, and Dr. Gromis placed on probation for five years and suspended from the practice of medicine for ninety days. The Division of Medical Quality of the (newly named) Medical Board declined to adopt the ALJ’s proposed decision and heard additional arguments. In the end, however, the division adopted the ALJ’s decision but reduced the period of suspension to 60 days.
Dr. Gromis then filed a petition for writ of mandate seeking to set…
Dissenting Opinion
Newsom, J.
In my opinion Business and Professions Code section 726, being entirely unintelligible, is a fortiori void as being unconstitutionally vague, i.e., no reasonable and practical construction can be given its language, and in any event it gives no fair warning of the conduct one might conjecture that it seeks to prohibit.
Thus, as here invoked, the section purports to proscribe sexual relations between a doctor and a patient “which [are] substantially related to the qualifications, functions, or duties of the occupation for which a license was issued . . . .”
As I am of the opinion that sexual relations cannot, under any conceivable circumstances, relate, substantially or otherwise, to any qualification, or function, or duty, of any occupation (licensed or unlicensed), I am forced to my conclusion that, being meaningless, the statute is unconstitutional both on its face and as applied to the present case.
I am opposed to remand for other reasons as well. So far as I can discern, the record contains no evidence which could support the finding we invite the trial court to make concerning Dr. Gromis’s abuse of his professional relationship with his former patient.
My reading of the…
Opinion
In this administrative mandamus action, the question is whether the Medical Board of California (Medical Board) may discipline a physician who dated and engaged in consensual sexual activity with a patient.
In June 1989, an accusation was filed by the Board of Medical Quality Assurance charging Michael William Gromis, M.D., with unprofessional conduct in that he engaged in sexual activity with a patient, in violation of section 726 of the Business and Professions Code. [1] The matter was heard by an administrative law judge (ALJ) from the Office of Administrative Hearings, who concluded that cause for discipline had been established and ordered Dr. Gromis's license to practice medicine revoked, with the revocation stayed, and Dr. Gromis placed on probation for five years and suspended from the practice of medicine for ninety days. The Division of Medical Quality of the (newly named) Medical Board declined to adopt the ALJ's proposed decision and heard additional arguments. In the end, however, the division adopted the ALJ's decision but reduced the period of suspension to 60 days.