State v. Hospital Authority of Gilmer County, 19916
| Decision Date | 07 March 1958 |
| Docket Number | No. 19916,19916 |
| Citation | 102 S.E.2d 543,213 Ga. 894 |
| Parties | The STATE of Georgia v. The HOSPITAL AUTHORITY OF GILMER COUNTY et al. |
| Court | Georgia Supreme Court |
Syllabus by the Court.
The petition did not set out a cause of action for declaratory judgment, and the trial court properly sustained the general demurrers of the defendants.
The State of Georgia, acting by and through the Attorney General, brought a petition for declaratory judgment, naming as defendants The Hospital Authority of Gilmer County, Watkins Memorial Hospital, Inc., Georgia Conference Association of Seventh-Day Adventists, and The Cumberland Conference Association of Seventh-Day Adventists.
It was alleged: The Hospital Authority of Gilmer County was created under the provisions of the Hospital Authorities Law of 1941 (Ga.L.1941, pp. 241-250), and activated by a resolution of the Gilmer County Board of Roads and Revenues on January 8, 1951. On September 21, 1952, The Hospital Authority of Gilmer County and the Georgia Department of Public Health entered into a contract for the construction and equipment of a hospital, financed in part by a grant in aid by the State of Georgia of $118,129.09. One of the terms of the contract was that the hospital authority would operate for a term of not less than 20 years. The hospital began its operation on July 17, 1955, under the name of Watkins Memorial Hospital. On January 2, 1957, The Hospital Authority of Gilmer County submitted to the State Department of Public Health a proposed lease of the hospital to The Watkins Memorial Hospital, Inc., which proposed lease was disapproved by the Department of Publec Health. On January 24, 1957, a lease contract was entered into between The Hospital Authority of Gilmer County and The Watkins Menorial Hospital, Inc., and this lease was executed, and the hospital placed in control of the lessee, without the knowledge, consent, or approval of the State Board of Health. The Watkins Menorial Hospital, Inc., is a private corporation, incorporated by named persons, who are officers, employees, or members of the defendant corporations of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church and the Seventh-Day Adventist Church formulates the policies and controls the practices of the corporation in operating the hospital. The ethical and religious standards of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church forbid or discourage the eating of meat, and the hospital has discontinued the serving of pork bacon to patients, even when such food was prescribed by the attending physician, and plans to discontinue serving all meats in the future. Religious literature of a sectarian nature is distributed to patients, their families, and friends. Professional personnel of the hospital has been replaced by members of the Church wherever possible. Patients of the Seventh-Day Adventist faith are brought from points as far as 150 miles away to be cared for in the hospital. The medical director of the hospital uses two rooms in the hospital for the private practice of medicine. These and other practices constitute a 'change in use' within the meaning of the act of 1949 (Ga.L.1949, p. 265, Code Ann. § 99-1607). On March 28, 1958, the Department of Public Health called upon The Hospital Authority of Gilmer County to seek cancellation of the lease and resume operation of the hospital. The authority failed and refused to do this. The authority violated its contract with the Department of Public Health when it ceased to operate the hospital within 20 years of the date it was opened, and violated the terms of the act of 1949 when it permitted a public hospital to be used for a purpose contrary to the use for which the State grant was made, such change not having been approved by the State Board of Health. In permitting the medical director to use space in the hospital for his private practice, the defendants have violated Article VII, Section III, Paragraph IV (Code Ann. § 2-5604) of the Constitution of Georgia. In leasing a public hospital to a private sectarian institution the hospital authority has violated Article VII, Section V. Paragraph I (Code Ann. s2-5801), and Article I, Section I, Paragraph XIV (Code Ann. § 2-114) of the Constitution of Georgia. In leasing a public hospital to a sectarian institution, and in permitting the hospital to be operated as alleged, the defendants have violated the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.
The petitioner contends: that the lease contract is void; the hospital should be returned to the management and control of the hospital authority; the authority has no right to sell, lease, or make any change in use of the hospital facilities as contemplated by the act of 1949 or its contract with the State Department of Public Health. The Hospital Authority of Gilmer County and the other defendants contend that the authority was authorized to lease the facilities, and that the hospital is being operated in a manner consistent with statutory and contractual requirements. The petitioner is faced with a situation in which it is asked to approve, retrospectively, a plan under which the possession and operation of a hospital, built in whole or in substantial part with public funds, is placed in a privated corporation under a lease contract, or to suggest how the authority may provide for the operation of the hospital by some other contractual arrangement. The situation is one of uncertainty and insecurity with respect to the position of the petitioner, and poses questions with regard to its future conduct in discharging its duty under Code Ann. § 99-1607, and other provisions of the Constitution and statutes of this State, 'which action without the direction of the court prayed for herein may reasonably jeopardize the petitioner's interests.' The facts alleged necessitate a determination of disputes, not merely for the purpose of enforcing accrued rights, but in order to guide the petitioner and protect it from uncertainty and insecurity with respect to its future conduct in regard to the 56 other hospitals which have been constructed, or are in the course of construction, with the aid of the State.
It was prayed that the court enter a judgment declaring: The Hospital Authority of Gilmer County is a public body corporate and politic and The Watking Memorial Hospital is public property; The Watking Memorial Hospital, Inc., is a private sectatian corporation and the operating agent for the corporations named of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church; the hospital authority was and is without legal authority to lease...
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