Lin
Lin v. Medical Board of California
Opinion
Lead Opinion
Ortega, J.
This case involves two licensed physicians, a husband and wife, who were fined $250 each for practicing medicine while *41 using names other than those under which they were licensed, for nonffaudulent reasons. We affirm the judgment denying their petition for administrative writ of mandate (Code Civ. Proc., § 1094.5).
Facts
The physicians received their California medical licenses in 1981 under the names Cheng-Wen Lin, M.D., and Tein Lin, M.D. (hereinafter sometimes referred to as their “licensed names"). Their licensed names were the same as those under which they had received Drug Enforcement Agency controlled substances registration certificates.
For nonfraudulent reasons, the physicians thereafter changed their names through general usage without court order. They called themselves, respectively, Charles Cheng-Wen Lin, M.D., or Charles C. Lin, M.D., and Cecilia Tein Lin, M.D., or Cecilia T. Lin, M.D. They did not, however, notify the Medical Board of California of their new names, which were not their licensed names. They used their new names on their professional letterhead, advertisements, and prescriptions.
The Medical Practice Act (Bus. & Prof. Code, § 2000…