Colorado § 12-275-104 - Proprietor defined.

§ 12-275-104. Proprietor defined.

(1) The term "proprietor", as used in this article 275, includes any person, group, association, or corporation not licensed under this article 275 who:

(a) For financial gain, employs optometrists in the operation of an optometry office;

(b) Places, directly or indirectly, in possession of an optometrist such materials or equipment as may be necessary for the operation of an optometrist's office on the basis of any fee splitting, income division, profit sharing, or similar agreement or on any basis that has the effect of any such agreement, but the term "proprietor" does not include the bona fide seller of optometry equipment or material secured by chattel mortgage, conditional sales contract, or other title retention agreements or the bona fide leasing of the equipment by the manufacturer or by the manufacturer's franchised dealer; or

(c) Under the guise of a rental percentage lease or sublease or other leasing or rental arrangement, participates in the direction and control of a licensee's practice and business or in the receipts or profits accruing therefrom, but a bona fide percentage sale lease basing the rental of the premises let upon a percentage of gross income of not to exceed the reasonable, going rate for like quarters and location, as determined by the board after investigation, shall not be deemed an avoidance of the provisions of this section. Certified copies of all such leasing and rental arrangements and renewals thereof shall be filed with the board by the licensee within thirty days after execution.

Source: L. 2019: Entire title R&RE with relocations, (HB 19-1172), ch. 136, p. 1412, § 1, effective October 1.

Editor's note: This section is similar to former § 12-40-103 as it existed prior to 2019.

ANNOTATION

Annotator's note. The following annotations include cases decided under former provisions similar to this section.

None of the general prohibitions in § 12-40-118 relate to the geographic location of the place where the practice of the profession is conducted, nor do the proscriptions of this section, but on the contrary, all of the provisions are directed to the conduct of the licensee or a "proprietor". Dixon v. Zick, 179 Colo. 278, 500 P.2d 130 (1972).

A physician cannot practice generally as the employee of a layman, whereas an optometrist may. People v. Painless Parker Dentist, 85 Colo. 304, 275 P. 928 (1929).

If a physician practices only the optometric branch of his profession under employment by a layman he is protected by this section. Bebber v. Fisher, 106 Colo. 197, 102 P.2d 741 (1940).