Eaton v. Grubbs

Citation329 F.2d 710
Decision Date01 April 1964
Docket NumberNo. 9058.,9058.
PartiesHubert A. EATON, Daniel C. Roane, Samuel James Gray, Vernetta E. Hussey and Leland M. Newsome, on behalf of themselves and others similarly situated, Appellants, v. Emory GRUBBS and the Board of Managers of James Walker Memorial Hospital, a body corporate, Appellees.
CourtU.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit

Jack Greenberg, New York City (Constance Baker Motley, Michael Meltsner, New York City, Robert R. Bond, Wilmington, N. C., and Conrad O. Pearson, Durham, N. C., on the brief), for appellants.

Ronald D. Rowe and C. D. Hogue, Jr., Wilmington, N. C. (William L. Hill, II, Wilmington, N. C., on the brief), for appellees.

Before SOBELOFF, Chief Judge, and HAYNSWORTH, BOREMAN, BRYAN and J. SPENCER BELL, Circuit Judges, sitting en banc.

SOBELOFF, Chief Judge.

The sole issue raised by this appeal is whether the State of North Carolina or the federal Government, or both, have become so involved in the conduct of the James Walker Memorial Hospital in Wilmington, North Carolina, that its activities are also the activities of these governments and performed under their aegis. If the answer is in the affirmative the mandate of the law is clear that the hospital may not discriminate on racial lines.

I

Three Negro physicians and two of their patients brought this class action to enjoin the James Walker Memorial Hospital and its administrator from continuing to deny admission to staff membership and treatment facilities on a racially discriminatory and segregated basis. The District Court granted the hospital's motion to dismiss, relying on this court's earlier decision in Eaton v. Board of Managers of James Walker Memorial Hospital, 261 F.2d 521 (4th Cir.), cert. denied, 359 U.S. 984, 79 S.Ct. 941, 3 L.Ed.2d 934 (1959). The hospital urges us not to disturb the District Court's determination, insisting that the factual situation here does not differ from the first Eaton case, and that there has been no intervening change in the law.

The posture of the case requires us to accept the Negroes' statement of the facts as true. Indeed no dispute as to the truth of their allegations is intimated by the defendants.

The James Walker Memorial Hospital is the largest, and is alleged to be the best, hospital in the Wilmington, North Carolina, area. It is said that the hospital serves about 75% of the white adult community. It was built at the beginning of the century by James Walker, a philanthropic citizen, on the site of a city hospital, which had been constructed in 1881 by the City of Wilmington and the County of Hanover for the treatment of the "sick or infirm poor persons" of the city and county. This city hospital was razed to provide room for the new structure. Mr. Walker died before the new building was actually completed, but his will bequeathed to the city and county the moneys necessary for the purpose. When completed, the building was turned over to the city and county for use as a city hospital, continuing the work of the old hospital.

In 1901, the Board of Managers of the James Walker Memorial Hospital was chartered as a corporation. The chartering act provides that a majority of the initial board of directors should be elected by the city and county, and that the Board should then be self-perpetuating. The preamble declares it to be the purpose of the enactment "that suitable provisions should * * * be made for the permanent maintenance of the hospital by the said City and County." In the same year the city and county donated to the Board the new hospital building and the land upon which it stood with the following restriction:

"To have and to hold in trust for the use of the Hospital aforesaid, so long as the same shall be used and maintained as a Hospital for the benefit of the County and City aforesaid, and in case of disuse or abandonment to revert to the said County and City as their interest respectively appear."

In the half-century following the city and county's donation of the hospital to the Board, both the city and county regularly appropriated moneys from their treasuries for the hospital's operation. In the years 1937-1939 they also paid $60,000, of the total cost of $100,000, for the addition of a North Wing. The United States supplied the remaining $40,000. Still another wing was added in 1944, financed by a grant of $508,000 from the United States under the provisions of the Defense Public Works Act. This Act specifies that funds shall be distributed "on the basis of need and in determining need no discrimination shall be made on account of race, creed, or color." 42 U.S.C.A. § 1533(a) (4). In order to qualify for the grant, the hospital was designated a "facility necessary for carrying on community life substantially expanded by the national defense program * * *." 42 U.S.C.A. § 1531.

In 1953, the method theretofore used by the city and county to finance the hospital's operating expenses was held to be in violation of the state constitution. Board of Managers of the James Walker Memorial Hospital of Wilmington v. City of Wilmington and New Hanover County, 237 N.C. 179, 74 S.E.2d 749 (1953). To carry on the work of the hospital, the city and county then substituted payments under a contract, into which they and the hospital entered, providing for per diem allowances for the care of welfare patients. It is alleged that the annual amounts of money given to the hospital pursuant to the contract were substantially the same as under the pre-1953 method.

Since our 1958 decision in Eaton, the Supreme Court has clarified and broadened the scope of inquiry where state action is alleged. In Burton v. Wilmington Parking Authority, 365 U.S. 715, at page 722, 81 S.Ct. 856, 860, 6 L.Ed.2d 45 (1961), the Court states that "only by sifting facts and weighing circumstances can the nonobvious involvement of the State in private conduct be attributed its true significance." Just last year, this court in Simkins v. Moses H. Cone Memorial Hospital, 323 F.2d 959 (4th Cir. 1963), cert. denied, 84 S.Ct. 793 (March 3, 1964), recognized that "in light of Burton doubt is cast upon Eaton's continued value as a precedent." 323 F.2d 959, 968. Because of the Burton and Simkins decisions, we are of the opinion that the doctrine of res judicata does not apply here and that a new and independent examination must be made of the relationship between the governmental bodies and the James Walker Memorial Hospital. Christian v. Jamison, 303 F.2d 52 (5th Cir. 1962).

At the outset it should be noted that the present complaint is far more specific in its allegations of state involvement than the complaint in the first Eaton case. Also, it sets forth in detail the capital construction subsidies which have, it is asserted, perpetuated and enhanced the state's involvement in the hospital. As we said in Simkins, "the opinion of this court in the first Eaton case does not deal with governmental construction subsidies and indeed shows no awareness of it; nor was this argued to the court. Certainly the decision can scarcely be relied on as authority for a proposition not considered." 323 F.2d at 969. Finally, and most importantly, the first Eaton case did not consider the argument now being made that the "private" hospital is fulfilling the function of the state.

II

Perhaps the most significant evidence of the state's involvement in the hospital's affairs is the presence of the reverter clause in the deed. In this respect, the case for the present plaintiffs is stronger than in Simkins.1 In Burton the Court held that when a state leases property to a private corporation so as to create a relationship of mutual benefits, responsibilities and obligations, the lessee must comply with the proscriptions of the Fourteenth Amendment as though they were binding covenants written into the lease. Here the reverter clause permitted the city and county effectively to control the use of the property because under the clause the property must be operated "as a hospital."

While it is true that this hospital, unlike the hospital in Simkins, did not participate in the Hill-Burton program, minutely detailed regulations were prescribed pursuant to North Carolina's participation in Hill-Burton projects. These regulations apply to this hospital even though it did not receive Hill-Burton funds. They lay down specific standards, effectively controlling the full range of day-to-day hospital administration and operation. They set forth minimum standards for the physical plant, and clinical, auxiliary and food services, and they are enforced by an agency of the state.

The complaint alleges that the hospital has been granted a tax exemption in excess of $50,000 per year. While a tax exemption, by itself, may not impose upon the recipient the restrictions of the Fourteenth Amendment, we are not required to look at each element of state participation in isolation. Tax exemption may attain significance when viewed in combination with other attendant state involvements. The court in the first Eaton case did not consider this, nor was the point argued; however, the Supreme Court, in "sifting facts and weighing circumstances" in Burton, did note the existence of the tax exemption there as one of the "activities, obligations and responsibilities" of the state. 365 U.S. 724, 81 S.Ct. 861.

The power of eminent domain has also been given the hospital, which it has exercised. In 1942, it filed a petition to condemn certain land for use in connection with the state-financed addition to the hospital facilities. The petition alleged that the hospital was "a municipal corporation, a public body and body corporate and politic," and the New Hanover County court, in granting the petition, described the institution as "a public body, a body corporate and politic *...

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