Northwest Georgia Health System, Inc. v. Times-Journal, Inc.

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Northwest Georgia Health System, Inc. vs. Times-Journal, Inc. Number: 218 Ga. App. 336 Year: 1995 State: Georgia Court: Georgia Court of Appeals Other lawsuits in Georgia Other lawsuits in 1995 Precedents include: This case established that private corporations need not meet the funding threshold to be considered public bodies if they are instead performing a public function on behalf of or instead of a public body.

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Northwest Georgia Health System, Inc. v. Times-Journal, Inc. was a case before the Georgia Court of Appeals in 1995 concerning the applicability of open meetings laws to private corporations.

Important precedents

This case established that private corporations need not meet the funding threshold to be considered public bodies if they are instead performing a public function on behalf of or instead of a public body.

Background

• Northwest Georgia Health System is a private nonprofit corporation. It was organized "for the benefit of, to perform the functions of, or to carry out the purposes of" various local hospital authorities. Promina is another private, nonprofit corporation and is the sole member of Northwest. Northwest does not receive any direct funding from taxes but it does receive funds in exchange for services provided from certain hospital subsidiaries to offset the costs of indigent care, amounting to less than 2% of total funds. Seven of the members of the board of trustees are also members of hospitals. The typical lease involves Northwest assuming control of a subsidiary hospital in exchange for "One Dollar ($1.00) in hand, plus other good and valuable consideration."
• The Marietta Daily Journal filed a complaint against Northwest Georgia Health System, Inc. and Promina Health System, Inc. claiming that the two organizations have continuously rejected the newspapers attempts to gain access to records and meetings.
• While the two corporations have provided access to some records, they have maintained that they are not subject to the Georgia Open Records Act and Georgia Open Meetings Act. Despite this contention, they have claimed that they have always complied with the law and kept their records and meetings open.
• The Newspaper filed the suit in order to compel the organizations to comply with the law and to void any action taken in violation of the open meetings law.
• The trial court ruled in favor of the newspaper.
• Northwest appealed the decision.

Ruling of the court

The trial court ruled in favor of the newspapers, declaring that Northwest and Promina were public bodies subject to the states open records laws.

The Court of Appeals affirmed the decision of the trial court ordering that the two corporations must begin following the open records and open meetings laws. Citing Red & Black Publishing Company v. Board of Regents, the court turned to the second application of the open records law to nonprofits and determined that when Northwest took on the responsibilities of the local hospitals they became the vehicle for those public agencies and thus became subject to the states open records and open meetings laws.

Associated cases

• Red & Black Publishing Company v. Board of Regents

External links

• Ruling of the Court