Opinion
November 16, 1961
Present — Bergan, P.J., Coon, Gibson, Herlihy and Taylor, JJ.
Proceeding under article 78 of the Civil Practice Act to review a determination of the Board of Regents directing that petitioner's license to practice medicine be suspended for one year. The Board of Regents found that petitioner had been convicted of a crime within the meaning of section 6514 (subd. 2, par. [b]) of the Education Law, such conviction being had upon three counts of an indictment found in a United States District Court charging him with attempting to evade income taxes due for the years 1950, 1951 and 1952 (Internal Revenue Code of 1939, § 145, subd. [b]; U.S. Code, tit. 26, § 145, subd. [b]) for which he was sentenced to concurrent terms of imprisonment. (See Palermo v. United States, 360 U.S. 343.) Petitioner did not contest the charges upon which the disciplinary proceeding was predicated and his proof was addressed solely to mitigation, as is his argument here. The Medical Committee on Grievances recommended that petitioner's license to practice medicine be suspended for six months; but the Regents' Committee on Discipline disagreed, "in view of the prior involvement of the respondent in a disciplinary proceeding" (which resulted in his medical license being suspended for one year) and thereupon recommended, in this case, the suspension of licensure for a period of at least one year. Upon vote of the Board of Regents, the order of one year's suspension followed. Petitioner urges in mitigation that he has been "sufficiently punished" by reason of the notoriety and disgrace of his prison sentence and the large cost of his defense, and asserts, further, that in view of his age and condition of health a suspension for one year will destroy his only means of livelihood. These considerations were properly for the board's evaluation as were the previous suspension (the record of which we have examined) and the acts upon which it was predicated; and we find no abuse of the discretion exercised by the board in imposing the measure of punishment determined upon. (Civ. Prac. Act, § 1296, subd. 5-a.) Determination unanimously confirmed, without costs.