DocketNumber: Docket 147-219
Citation Numbers: 49 A.2d 236, 138 N.J. Eq. 556
Judges: FIELDER, V.C.
Filed Date: 10/21/1946
Status: Precedential
Modified Date: 4/9/2017
The bill of complaint herein was filed by two licensed dentists and an unincorporated association of several licensed dentists. It alleges that defendant is practicing dentistry without having been licensed and admitted to practice that profession in this state. Complainants seek an injunction restraining defendant from continuing such practice. The defendant moves to strike the bill on the ground that it discloses no equitable cause of action and that this court lacks jurisdiction to entertain complainants' suit.
R.S. 45:6-1 et seq. regulates the practice of dentistry. It provides that no person shall practice that profession in this state unless licensed to do so by a state board of registration and examination; it provides a money penalty for violation *Page 557 of the statute to be recovered in an action in a District Court or Court of Common Pleas on complaint by any member of the State Board or by any member of an incorporated dental society. It provides for no other method of procedure against one charged with unlicensed practice of dentistry.
The question argued on the motion to strike is whether this suit may be maintained by individuals licensed to practice dentistry in this state, who allege that a license to practice dentistry, obtained after compliance with the statute, is a property right the value of which is greatly diminished by unfair and illegal competition by defendant and results in loss of business and fees to complainants.
Complainants place great reliance on Unger v. Landlords'Management Corp.,
Jaeckle v. L. Bamberger Co.,
The property right complainants here assert is the right to be free from competition by defendant practicing dentistry without a license. Prior to the enactment of the dentistry *Page 558
statute no such property right existed. Whether the statute created such right depends upon the purpose for which it was enacted. It has been said that the practice of dentistry is a privilege subject to state regulation in the interest of the public (Levine v. State Board, c., of Dentistry,
A supplement to the statute, known as R.S. 45:6-29.1 (P.L.1942 ch. 78), vests in this court jurisdiction and discretionary power, upon bill presented at the suit of the Attorney-General or the State Board of Dentistry, to prevent and restrain the practice of dentistry by an unlicensed person. The fact that the legislature by the supplemental act authorized designated public officials to apply for a restraint against violation of certain provisions of what I may call the original dentistry statute, indicates that the right to a restraint had not existed theretofore; that it was granted those officials for the purpose of protecting the public from incompetents and that the right to a restraint does not exist for the personal benefit of individuals licensed under the statute. Mosig v. JerseyChiropodists, Inc.,
Defendant's motion will be granted. *Page 559