Letter Opinion 1970 No. 028

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                                                                   March 5, 1970
 
 
 
Honorable Otto Amen
State Representative, Legislative District 9-B
Ritzville, Washington 99169
                                                                                                               Cite as:  AGLO 1970 No. 28
 
 
Dear Sir:
 
            This is written in response to your recent letter requesting our opinion on a question pertaining to the authority of a public hospital district to construct a medical clinic and then lease the facility for operational purposes to one or more doctors.
 
                                                                     ANALYSIS
 
            What appears to have been a somewhat similar proposal was considered by this office in two earlier opinions which were issued in 1949.  We are enclosing copies of these opinions ‑ one dated July 28, 1949, to the then acting director of the state health department and the other dated March 2, 1949, to the then prosecuting attorney of Adams county ‑ herewith.
 
            We can see no reason at this time to depart from either of these previous opinions; accordingly, to the extent and in the manner that an affirmative answer was given to the comparable question in these previous opinions, we may answer the question you have posed in the same manner.  Of course, it must be understood that the hospital district in question will only proceed with this proposal in accordance with legal counsel obtained from its own attorney on the basis of all of the facts and circumstances involved in the proposal ‑ including such circumstances as the proximity of the proposed clinic to the existing hospital facility of the district, together with the nature of the services to be rendered by the clinic.
 
            It is hoped that the foregoing will be of some assistance to you.
 
Very truly yours,
 
FOR THE ATTORNEY GENERAL
 
 
Philip H. Austin
Assistant Attorney General