ORGANIZED MIG. IN COM. ACTION, INC. v. James Archer Smith Hosp., Civ. No. 70-1794.

• Decision Date: 06 April 1971
• Docket Number: Civ. No. 70-1794.
• Citation: 325 F. Supp. 268
• Parties: ORGANIZED MIGRANTS IN COMMUNITY ACTION, INC.; Toby Hughes, a minor, by his next friend and guardian Essie Mae Hughes, on their own behalf and on behalf of all others similarly situated, Plaintiffs, v. JAMES ARCHER SMITH HOSPITAL, and Warren Stearnes, Director of James Archer Smith Hospital; the City of Homestead, Florida; Crawford Blake, as Chairman of the Municipal Hospital Board; James A. Bax, Secretary of the Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services of the State of Florida; and Arthur Forehand, Chief of the Division of Community Hospitals and Medical Facilities of the Florida Board of State Institutions, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Southern District of Florida

325 F. Supp. 268

ORGANIZED MIGRANTS IN COMMUNITY ACTION, INC.; Toby Hughes, a minor, by his next friend and guardian Essie Mae Hughes, on their own behalf and on behalf of all others similarly situated, Plaintiffs, v. JAMES ARCHER SMITH HOSPITAL, and Warren Stearnes, Director of James Archer Smith Hospital; the City of Homestead, Florida; Crawford Blake, as Chairman of the Municipal Hospital Board; James A. Bax, Secretary of the Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services of the State of Florida; and Arthur Forehand, Chief of the Division of Community Hospitals and Medical Facilities of the Florida Board of State Institutions, Defendants.

Civ. No. 70-1794.

United States District Court, S. D. Florida.

April 6, 1971.

Bruce S. Rogow & Alfred Feinberg, Miami, Fla., Leonard Helfand & Philip L. Coller, Miami Beach, Fla., Joseph Segor, Miami, Fla., Dorsey Henderson, Homestead, Fla., for plaintiffs.

Vernon W. Turner, Homestead, Fla., James G. Mahorner, Tallahassee, Fla., for defendants.

ORDER ON MOTION TO DISMISS

KING, District Judge.

This action has been brought by Organized Migrants in Community Action, Inc., hereafter referred to as O.M.I.C.A. a non-profit corporation, and Toby Hughes, a minor, by his next friend and guardian, Essie Mae Hughes, on their own behalf and on behalf of a class composed of indigent nonwhites residing between Perrine and Florida City, Dade County, Florida. Plaintiffs seek, inter alia, to compel defendant hospital to provide a "reasonable volume" of hospital services to persons unable to pay therefor.

Plaintiffs have alleged jurisdiction based on Titles 42 U.S.C. §§ 291 et seq. (the Hill-Burton Act), 1981 and 1983, the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution of the United States, and titles 28 U.S.C. §§ 1331, 1343, 2201 and 2202.

Defendants, through a motion to dismiss, have challenged the standing of the corporate plaintiff as well as the standing and definiteness of the class. In addition they move to dismiss for failure to state a cause of action under the Hill-Burton Act and on the issue of racial discrimination.

STANDING

Defendants urge that plaintiff, Organized Migrants in Community Action, Inc. does not have proper standing to maintain this action. Generally, an organization must show an injury to itself distinct from that of its membership to support standing. Norwalk CORE v. Norwalk Redevelopment Agency, 395 F.2d 920 (C.A. 2, 1968). O.M.I. C.A. is not a member of the injured class, nor has it any litigable right which is judicially enforceable. While this Court recognizes that special circumstances may exist in some cases to justify a departure from the general rule, no such circumstances have been presented to the Court. The freedom of association of the members of O.M.I.C. A. is not at issue, nor is direct injury to O.M.I.C.A. alleged. Plaintiff Hughes and his class are represented by competent counsel which will insure the effective adversarial assertion of their claims. National Welfare Rights Organization v. Wyman, 304 F.Supp. 1346 (D. C.E.D.N.Y.). The Court therefore concludes that the motion to dismiss plaintiff, O.M.I.C.A., Inc. should be granted with leave to amend if it is so advised.

CLASS ACTION

We find that the complaint represents on its face questions of law or fact common to all on whose behalf the suit is brought. In addition, the relief sought is common to all members of the class and the representative. It appears to the Court that Rule 23(b) (2) is most appropriate to the maintenance of the class action. As pointed out by the advisory committee on the 1966 amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure:

This subdivision is intended to reach situations where a party has taken action or refused to take action with respect to a class, and final relief of an injunctive nature or of a corresponding declaratory nature, settling the legality of the behavior with respect to the class as a whole, is appropriate. Declaratory relief "corresponds" to injunctive relief when as a practical matter it affords injunctive relief or serves as a basis for later injunctive relief. The subdivision does not extend to cases in which the appropriate final relief relates exclusively or predominantly to money damages. Action or inaction is directed to a class within the meaning of this subdivision even if it has taken effect or is threatened only as to one or a few members of the class, provided it is based on grounds which have general application to the class. Advisory Committee's notes to 1966 Amendments, 39 F.R.D. 102 (1966).

The issues of this case concern directly the rights given to a class of people described in a Federal statute, further delineated under its implementing regulation. The advisory committee could not have contemplated a more fitting application for their amended rule. The Court therefore concludes this to be a valid class action.

Certain requirements of the Hill-Burton Act seek to assure medical services to people unable to pay for them by requiring hospitals using Hill-Burton money to furnish a reasonable volume of free or reduced cost services to the poor. The issue of whether that class of poor people provided for could, on their own behalf enforce the provisions of the Act was recently considered by the Federal District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana. Cook v. Ochsner Foundation Hospital, 319 F.Supp. 603 (E.D. La.1970). In that case, the...