Preliminary referral on physician-manager's public-official status ruled inadmissible.

The High Court of Cassation and Justice dismissed as inadmissible the referral from the Constanța Court of Appeal seeking a preliminary ruling on whether a physician serving as head of department at a public hospital under an administration contract—without a separate indefinite employment contract—qualifies as a "public official" under Art. 175(1)(b), second thesis, or is considered one under Art. 175(2) of the Criminal Code, in relation to his role as attending physician in the department he manages. The court thus did not rule on the merits of the legal question, leaving the prior proceedings in the referred case unaffected. The referral arose in a criminal case concerning the interpretation of the scope of the term "public official" for offenses involving public officials under Romanian criminal law, specifically the interplay between the status of a head of department (exercising public authority) and that of a mere attending physician (not exercising such authority), as defined by Art. 175 of the Criminal Code and the relevant provisions of the public health law (Law No. 95/2006). The dismissal was based on the inadmissibility of the referral, presumably because the question did not meet the statutory conditions for a preliminary ruling, such as raising a genuine issue of law whose resolution is necessary for the case and that is not already settled by case law.