Falcone v. Middlesex County Medical Society

170 A.2d 791 (1961)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

In 1953 Falcone (P) was admitted as an associate member of the Middlesex County Medical Society (D). Their by-laws provide that a physician may not be an associate member longer than two years. In 1956, D declined to admit P as an active member for the reason that he had not been licensed to practice as a Doctor of Medicine. P had a license only for Osteopathy. P claims that this reason is unsound because the license that P possessed allowed him to practice medicine and surgery, but it did not refer to him as a holder of the degree of D.O. Nothing in D’s by-laws purports to preclude membership by a licensed physician who holds an M.D. from an A.M.A. approved medical school. D’s committee on medical ethics does apply an unwritten membership requirement of four years of study at a medical college approved by the A.M.A. This would preclude P’s acceptance, as the A.M.A. has not approved the school he attended in Philadelphia and he did not attend the school in Milan, which was approved for the required 4 years. P was a duly licensed and registered physician in New Jersey, and there was no doubt that P was a qualified physician and surgeon and that he had not engaged in any type of conduct which would raise any questions about his professional ethics and competency. As a result, P was dropped from the medical staffs at local hospitals. It was evident that P could not continue in his practice if he was denied access to local hospital facilities. After the refusal to admit him, P appealed to the State Medical Society, which held a hearing but refused to permit representation by legal counsel. The State Society declined to interfere with D’s decision. P sued D. D claims it is a voluntary organization, which is at liberty to prescribe its own rules and P has no judicially enforceable right of admission to membership. The court determined that D had a monopoly over the practice of medicine in the local area and as such its rules and admissions policies were subject to judicial scrutiny. The trial judge found that the four years’ study in a medical college approved by the A.M.A. contravenes the public policy of the State. P got the judgment and an order to admit him to full membership. D appealed.