Woman's Hospital League v. City of Paducah

223 S.W. 159, 188 Ky. 604, 1920 Ky. LEXIS 330
CourtCourt of Appeals of Kentucky
DecidedJune 18, 1920
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 223 S.W. 159 (Woman's Hospital League v. City of Paducah) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Kentucky primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Woman's Hospital League v. City of Paducah, 223 S.W. 159, 188 Ky. 604, 1920 Ky. LEXIS 330 (Ky. Ct. App. 1920).

Opinion

Opinion by

Judge Settle

Overruling motion.

The object of the plaintiffs in bringing this action, now pending in the McCracken circuit court, was and is to prevent the defendants, city of Paducah, its mayor and board of commissioners, from diverting to a use other than that for which it was erected, dedicated and had been maintained under their control, a building in Paducah known as the “Ewart Purcell Isolation Ward,” a hospital for the isolation and care of persons afflicted with contagious diseases. As a means to the end in view plaintiffs sought an injunction to restrain the alleged misuse of the building by the defendants complained of; and upon their application therefor, preliminary to a preparation of the case for trial on its merits, the judge of the circuit court granted them a temporary injunction which confines the defendants’ control of the building in question to its use as an isolation ward for the care and treatment of persons afflicted with contagious diseases.

The case is now before me, a judge of the Court of Appeals, on a motion made by the defendants to dissolve the injunction. The other judges of the Court of Appeals, save Judge Clarke, who was absent, sat with me in passing on the motion, and all concur in the conclusions expressed in the opinion.

The following brief statement of the facts disclosed by the record will give an understanding of the questions presented for decision by the defendants’ motion to dis[606]*606solve the injunction. Paducah is a city of the second class, and having the commission form of government, its municipal affairs are controlled and inhabitants governed by a commission composed of its mayor and the four commissioners joined with the city as defendants to this action, all of whom were duly elected to their respective offices by the voters of the city. The plaintiff, Woman’s Hospital League, is, as its title imports, an ^association composed of women having as its object the amelioration of human suffering and betterment of hospital conditions for the care of the sick and afflicted in Paducah, where the association exists and its work is all done. Although the city of Paducah owns, and for many years has maintained, a hospital known as the “Riverside Hospital,” which is apparently adequate to the needs of its inhabitants afflicted with non-contagious ailments, it had not until moved to do. so by the action of the Woman’s Hospital League and its offer of assistance to that end, provided itself with a hospital in which persons afflicted with contagious diseases could be isolated for their better treatment and to prevent the spread of such diseases in the city and surrounding territory. It was upon the initiative, therefore, of the Woman’s Hospital League and by concert of action between it and the mayor and board of commissioners of the city of Paducah then in office that the building known as the “Ewart Purcell Isolation Ward” was erected, equipped and dedicated as a hospital for the isolation and care of persons afflicted with contagious diseases. The movement had its beginning in conferences between the officers of the Woman’s Hospital League and a committee appointed by a resolution adopted by the mayor and city commissioners of Paducah. These conferences resulted in an agreement between the Woman’s Hospital League and the city through its mayor and board of commissioners to erect the isolation hospital on substantially the following terms and plan: (1) That the building should be constructed according to plans and ■ specifications provided by the city of Paducah, finder the supervision of an architect of its appointment and upon .ground owned by the city already occupied, in part, by its building known as the “Riverside Hospital;” (2) that the cost of the construction should be paid, one-half by the Woman’s Hospital League and one-half by the city of Paducah; (3) that when completed, the building should be named and called the “Ewart Purcell Isola[607]*607tion Ward” and devoted to public use as a hospital for the isolation and care of persons afflicted with contagious diseases; (4) that the building should be under the control of the city of Paducah, through its constituted authorities, and maintained at its expense as a ward, or hospital, for the isolation and care of persons afflicted with contagious diseases.

Thereafter, in September, 1917, at a regular meeting of the board of commissioners of the city of Paducah, composed of the mayor and four commissioners then in office, an ordinance was duly passed by that body adopting and substantially setting forth in terms as already stated, the above agreement between the Woman’s Hospital League and the city regarding the erection and maintenance of the Ewart Purcell Isolation Ward. It is also declared by the ordinance that the contract for the erection of the hosiptal had been made with a builder who was to construct it at the total price of $5,813.80, and that the half of this amount, $2,906.90, the Woman’s Hospital League had theretofore “generously donated to the city of Paducah for the construction of an isolation ward for the treatment of contagious diseases.”

It is apparent from the record that the entire agreement between the parties concerned respecting the building of the hospital in question is contained in the ordinance referred to; and as it possesses the elements essential to a valid contract and its binding effect upon the defendant, city of Paducah, as upon the plaintiffs, is established by the recorded action taken by its governing body in the manner provided by law, the city will be estopped to deny or repudiate the legal effect of its provisions. This being true, it becomes necessary to determine the meaning of the contract.

The remaining facts necessary to a full understanding of the case, are admitted; that is that the Ewart Isolation Ward or hospital was, in due course, constructed by the defendant city as provided by the agreement between it and the plaintiff, Woman’s Hospital League, set forth by the ordinance passed by the former board of commissioners, and at the cost price therein specified, one-half of which was paid by the city and the other half by the Woman’s Hospital League. It is also admitted that the Woman’s Hospital League, upon the completion of the new hospital, donated, at a cost to it of several hundred dollars, furniture and other [608]*608paraphernalia for the furnishing and equipment of ton rooms and four wards of the building; and that shortly after its completion the hospital, in an address delivered by Mrs. Purcell, president of the Woman’s Hospital League, and one of acceptanec from the then mayor of the city of Paducah, was publicly delivered to the city and formally dedicated to the use for which it was designed, under the name “Ewart Purcell Isolation Ward;” from which time until shortly before the institution of this action the building was exclusively used as a hospital for isolating and caring for persons afflicted with contagious diseases and several such patients cared for therein. It is a further admitted fact that such use of the hospital ended with the adoption by the present mayor and board of commissioners of the city of Paducah of a resolution, or ordinance, discontinuing its use as a hospital for the isolation and care of persons having contagious1 diseases, and converting it into a home for nurses employed in the adjacent Riverside Hospital and student nurses under training in the city for that occupation, for which purpose the property was being used, when the injunction preventing such further use of it by the defendants, was granted.

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Bluebook (online)
223 S.W. 159, 188 Ky. 604, 1920 Ky. LEXIS 330, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/womans-hospital-league-v-city-of-paducah-kyctapp-1920.