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.,_ SUPERIOR COURT OF NEW JERSEY CHANCERY DIVISION - MONMOUTH COUNT" DOCKET NUMBER C-- PETER N. DERRETTI. Plaintiff, -vs- Transcript of Court's Decision RAYMOND J, SALANI, Defendant. -------------------------------~ Courthouse, Freehold, N. J. December, BEfO-q_F.: un~nrarle natrick J. MC GANN, JR., J.S.C. LI~:DA S. ERSHOW-LEVENBERG, ES0. For the Plaintiff SPFRRY L. SPENCER, rsn. For the Defendant HUGH PORTER, C.S.R. Official Steno ~ raohic Reoorter Courthouse Fr e eh o d, ~!. J 0

~- 0 THE COURT: I think in order to set everything in context we ought to understand that Raymond Salani is a nutritionist and no matter what happens here today he will continue to be a nutritionist, he will be advising people what they should do with regard to their diet and for their general health, things of that nature. We should also und~rstand that we are discussing Ph.Din quotes, we're not discussing the term doctor which normally flows from the Ph.D, because I think it's pretty well agreed that no matter what happens today, he will not be holding himself out with the word doctor, because there's another statute which implicates medical connotations to the word doctor, and it's pretty clear that he's not medically qualified and that the public, that's all we're talking about, the public may be misled in some fashion which is why the State has properly moved with regard to the use of doctor. Ph.D does not implicate medical aspects necessarily. But he will continue with or without Ph.D to be nutritionist. That is his livelihood and I think it is important to recognize the distinction between one's livelihood and a title or letters, because title involves pride in a sense, title

- involves public recognition of academic striving, but it doesn't involve making a living necessarily, certainly Ph.D rarely involves making a living unless you are going to go into the university departments and move up in the departments. Raymond Salani did get from a mail order institution, Donnsback University of Huntington Beach, California, a Ph.D degree, he applied in, I think the degree was given to him in 0 and certainly there's nothing improper about doing it, there's nothing wrong about mail order education, except insofar as what might happen as a result of it. 0 Certainly nothing wrong with his practicing as a nutritionist so long as that practice does not implicate other statutory enactments which are there for the general protection of the public. I think it's certainly basic to government that the government is there to protect people, to protect them from being prayed upon and I'm using that terminology not with reference to what he's doing but i n the general context. One would say that people are generally dumb and not very smart abouc things and it's up to the government to look over the situation and be smart on

- -... - 0 their behalf, that's why we pay officials and people to enforce laws and that's very basic to government. The argument that somehow or other this is a protected position which Mr. Salani has because of laches, that it "has been too long in bringing this to a head and getting it before a Court for resolution" has no validity at all. We're talking about the time between August of and the present and in the lifetime of a government and in the lifetime of enforcing laws, that's not too long a time that would cause me to have the sense that it's unfair to do it now rather than then. Lachesis out. Estoppel also is not a defense upon which positive rights can be created. There's the theory that the government is estopped now because in they didn't do something definitive when Mr. Salani was before the Board. He didn't change his position. Basic to the concept of estoppel is that relying on inaction, someone changed their position and, therefore, it's unfair to make them change it back. Well, he didn't change anything. He simply continued doing what he had done since 0 and that is, hold himself out as a Ph.D. So estoppel isn't in the picture, either. The Consumer Fraud Act in and of itself

.. 0 really doesn't apply to this situation. The Consumer Fraud Act basically has to do with the misrepresentations in the sale of things for people. I-got-the-best-second-hand-car-you-ever-saw kind of thing. The Consumer Fraud Act has been extended to the sales of real property, too. But the Consumer Fraud Act really is the square hole for the round peg of this case. What Mr. Salani is doing is not fraudulent as far as the consumer is concerned because the consumer goes to him as a nutritionist. What he wants to do is in effect to continue to impress the consumer who comes to him by saying I'm a Ph.D, too. Now, there is a statute that tells him now that he can't do that. The statute says very plainly, a person shall not append to his name any letters in the same form designated by the Board of Higher Education as entitled to the protection accorded to an academic degree unless the person has received from a duly authorized institution of higher education the degree or certificate for which the letters are registered. It's entirely clear that Donnsback University of Huntington Beach, California is not nor has it ever been a duly authorized institution of higher

- 0 education for the awarding of those degrees as far as accreditation is concerned. It was allowed to operate in the State California, that's true. And California apparently allowed it to give the degree, that's true, but as far as accreditation is concerned is has never been accredited by any board and especially the U.S. Department of Education which is a recognized accrediting organization, that's where accreditation takes place. It has never received that. The argument is that because he has been saying to people since 0 I'm a Ph.D, he ought to be able to continue saying that and that if somehow or other an injunction is entered against his doing that, that will be a retroactive application of this law which was enacted in. I really can't see that argument, I really can't understand that. If the State, as I said before in discussing it, Ms. Spencer, if the State were coming in and saying you have been a villain in the past, Raymond Salani, because you have been misrepresenting yourself under this statute and, therefore, we're going to penalize you for what you have done in the past, I would agree with the argument, they couldn't do that. But that's not what's before me. This is not

0 0 a penalty proceeding. This is an application for an injunction, to enjoin him against prospective or future use of that insofar as the statute is concerned. And I agree that it's not a vested right that he has. He may arguably have a vested ri~ht in being a nutritionist but nobody has a vested right in saying after the name ~h.d. That has nothing to do with livelihood. That has to do with more personal pride, really, that's all it is, than to say that's a vested right which has constitutional protection doesn't strike me as being logical or reasonable. The legislature has the right to make laws. In this case, it's a law to protect the people out there in the sense that the Consumer Fraud Act protects people out there in a particular way. This is to protect people out there from relying on those who put degrees after their name as something special simply because they have degrees, I mean, Ph.D, well, the next thing that follows from Ph.Din the mind of most people is, well, he must be a doctor of some sort, not medical doctor but what the academic degree implicates, and whether or not he uses the word doctor along with his name, the public is going to think of him as Dr. Salani because he's got the Ph.D. You know, the two really can't be distinguished

0 separately from one another, while he says I wouldn't use the word doctor or Dr. after my name, but I want to use Ph.D, that really is going to accomplish the same purpose, the idea of doctor out there, somebody who is super-extra because of the Ph.D, he's not entitled to give that impression to people that he is super extra because he did not get a Ph.D from an accredited university, he did it by mail order courses. If the public was aware there were mail order courses they would say it's a Mickey Mouse degree. But they are not aware of mail order courses and they are not aware of the validity of the degree and the only way we can protect the public is to do what the legislature said ought to be done, the person shall not append to his name, and, therefore, I think the matter is ripe for summary judgment and I will enter a permanent injunction based on the summary judgment which will direct Mr. Salani from henceforth not to append to his name any letters Ph.D, and I'll sign that order. Thank you for presenting the matter. MS. ERSHOW-LEVENBERG: Thank you, your Honor. MS. SPENCER: Thank you, your Honor. MS. ERSHOW-LEVENBERG: I have forms of order

- Q' - ------ - - - -- -- - -. -- --- - with me. (Whereupon, the hearing was concluded.) * * * * I, HUGH PORTER, a Certified Shorthand Repo~~er of the State of New Jersey certify the foregoing to be a true and accurate transcript of my stenographic notes. l -HUGH PORTER, C.S.R. l 0