{
  "id": 8523589,
  "name": "WALTER G. BULLINGTON, M.D., KENNETH L. COHEN, M.D., and J. LAWRENCE SIPPE, M.D., NORTH CAROLINA SOCIETY OF OPHTHALMOLOGY, INC. v. NORTH CAROLINA STATE BOARD OF EXAMINERS IN OPTOMETRY",
  "name_abbreviation": "Bullington v. North Carolina State Board of Examiners in Optometry",
  "decision_date": "1986-03-18",
  "docket_number": "No. 8510SC1097",
  "first_page": "750",
  "last_page": "752",
  "citations": [
    {
      "type": "official",
      "cite": "79 N.C. App. 750"
    }
  ],
  "court": {
    "name_abbreviation": "N.C. Ct. App.",
    "id": 14983,
    "name": "North Carolina Court of Appeals"
  },
  "jurisdiction": {
    "id": 5,
    "name_long": "North Carolina",
    "name": "N.C."
  },
  "cites_to": [],
  "analysis": {
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  "last_updated": "2023-07-14T14:35:53.333939+00:00",
  "provenance": {
    "date_added": "2019-08-29",
    "source": "Harvard",
    "batch": "2018"
  },
  "casebody": {
    "judges": [
      "Judges Wells and Martin concur."
    ],
    "parties": [
      "WALTER G. BULLINGTON, M.D., KENNETH L. COHEN, M.D., and J. LAWRENCE SIPPE, M.D., NORTH CAROLINA SOCIETY OF OPHTHALMOLOGY, INC. v. NORTH CAROLINA STATE BOARD OF EXAMINERS IN OPTOMETRY"
    ],
    "opinions": [
      {
        "text": "HEDRICK, Chief Judge.\nWe agree with Judge Bailey in quashing the subpoenas and reversing the decision of the Board not to revoke the subpoenas, but for different reasons than set out in the order. We do not agree that the subpoenas \u201cwere issued in excess of the authority of the North Carolina State Board of Examiners in Optometry.\u201d\nThe three subpoenas issued to the three individual physicians are fatally defective on their face. The subpoenas purport to require each physician as an individual to produce certain documents belonging to and in the possession of the North Carolina Society of Ophthalmology, a corporation. The North Carolina Society of Ophthalmology, a corporation, is not required by the subpoenas to produce anything through its representatives. The individual physicians named in the subpoenas are not designated in the subpoenas to be in any way representatives of the corporation or custodians of documents belonging to the corporation.\nOur decision makes it inadvisable for us to discuss the many issues raised and discussed by the parties in the petition for judicial review and in their respective briefs. G.S. 90-117.4 clearly gives the Board the power in a proper case, and this appears to be a proper case, to \u201cissue subpoenas requiring the attendance of persons and the production of papers and records.\u201d The subpoena authority of the Board is limited to \u201cany hearing, investigation or proceeding conducted by it.\u201d G.S. 90-117.4. The authority of the Board to enforce its subpoena power necessarily must be decided on a case-by-case basis.\nThe decision of the superior court quashing the subpoenas and reversing the decision of the Board is\nAffirmed.\nJudges Wells and Martin concur.",
        "type": "majority",
        "author": "HEDRICK, Chief Judge."
      }
    ],
    "attorneys": [
      "Smith, Anderson, Blount, Dorsett, Mitchell & Jernigan, by Samuel G. Thompson, Julian D. Bobbitt, Jr., and William H. Moss, for petitioners, appellees.",
      "Boyce, Mitchell, Burns & Smith, P.A., by G. Eugene Boyce and Karen Britt Peeler, for respondent, appellant."
    ],
    "corrections": "",
    "head_matter": "WALTER G. BULLINGTON, M.D., KENNETH L. COHEN, M.D., and J. LAWRENCE SIPPE, M.D., NORTH CAROLINA SOCIETY OF OPHTHALMOLOGY, INC. v. NORTH CAROLINA STATE BOARD OF EXAMINERS IN OPTOMETRY\nNo. 8510SC1097\n(Filed 18 March 1986)\nProcess \u00a7 6\u2014 subpoenas issued to individual petitioners \u2014corporate records sought \u2014 subpoenas properly quashed\nSubpoenas issued to the individual petitioners commanding them to appear before respondent board with all documents in the possession of the N.C. Society of Optometry, Inc. were fatally defective on their face and should have been quashed since the subpoenas purported to require each individual petitioner to produce documents in the possession of a corporation; the corporation was not required by the subpoenas to produce anything through its representatives; and the individuals named in the subpoenas were not designated in the subpoenas to be in any way representatives of the corporation or custodians of documents belonging to the corporation.\nAppeal by respondent North Carolina State Board of Examiners in Optometry from Bailey, Judge. Order entered 3 July 1985 in Superior Court, Wake County. Heard in the Court of Appeals 12 March 1986.\nOn 30 July 1984, the North Carolina State Board of Examiners in Optometry [hereinafter the Board] issued subpoenas to Dr. Walter G. Bullington, Dr. J. Lawrence Sippe and Dr. Kenneth L. Cohen commanding them to appear before the Board with all documents in the possession of the North Carolina Society of Ophthalmology, Inc., which support allegations of negligent care and malpractice on the part of 203 licensees of the Board, as presented to the North Carolina Senate Human Resources Committee during the summer of 1983. On 29 August 1984, the individual physicians named in the subpoenas filed with the Board a request to revoke and reconsider the subpoenas, which request was denied. At the hearing on the request to revoke and reconsider the subpoenas, the Board found that the physicians had failed to produce the documents as set forth in the subpoenas \u201cwithout good cause\u201d and \u201c[t]hat the subpoenas were properly issued and served upon the respondents and that the respondents were properly before the Board,\u201d and, based upon these findings, concluded that the respondent physicians were in contempt of the Board. On 23 October 1984, petitioners, Dr. Bullington, Dr. Cohen, Dr. Sippe and the North Carolina Society of Ophthalmology, Inc., sought judicial review pursuant to G.S. 150A-43 by filing a motion to quash the subpoenas and for a protective order. On 3 July 1985, after a hearing, Judge Bailey entered the following order:\n[I]t appearing to the Court after reviewing the record, reviewing the briefs of the parties and hearing arguments of counsel for the parties that the Petitioners\u2019 motion to quash subpoenas issued to Petitioners by Respondents should be granted and the Respondent\u2019s decision to issue the subpoenas and not to revoke same should be reversed on the grounds that said subpoenas were issued in excess of the authority of the North Carolina State Board of Examiners in Optometry.\nThe Board appealed to this Court.\nSmith, Anderson, Blount, Dorsett, Mitchell & Jernigan, by Samuel G. Thompson, Julian D. Bobbitt, Jr., and William H. Moss, for petitioners, appellees.\nBoyce, Mitchell, Burns & Smith, P.A., by G. Eugene Boyce and Karen Britt Peeler, for respondent, appellant."
  },
  "file_name": "0750-01",
  "first_page_order": 778,
  "last_page_order": 780
}