Salgado v. Board of Examiners of Accountants
Salgado v. Board of Examiners of Accountants
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the Court.
The respondent, the Board of Examiners of Accountants, Refused to issue a license as an auditor or accountant to the appellant. He presented a petition of mandamus! to the District Court of San Juan. That court, in a carefully reasoned opinion, held that by Act No. 42 of May 13, 1927, (Session Laws, p. 234) a certain discretion was vested in the hoard and the courts would only intervene in case of an abuse. In this court the appellant, it may he said, relies principally on Tirado v. Retirement Pension Board, 38 P.R.R. 901. In that case we held, among other things, that even though a hoard had a certain amount of discretion qua the weighing of evidence, if the duty to he enforced was olear a mandamus would issue, despite the supposed discretion. Judicial discretion and administrative discretion were ■distinguished. There was nothing in that case, however, which would give a court the general right to review hy mandamus the refusal of a board to issue a license when as a step to the issuance of such license the law itself fixed a discretion in a hoard, as here. By the Act of May 13, 1927,
Likewise, as we have partially indicated.above, the right of petitioner in the Tirado case, supra, had accrued and the duty of the board to put him on the retired list was clear. We considered that the duty there was specially enforced by the law. In the present case the petitioner had no such acquired right and was bound to convince the board of his qualifications. Llovet v. Board of Examiners of Engineers, etc., 40 P.R.R. 560, is a case distinct from the present one.
In .general, too, where an applicant for a license has to convince a board of his qualifications, a mandamus should only issue where there has been a clear abuse of discretion.
The judgment will be affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.