Palm Beach County Health Care District v. Everglades Memorial Hospital, Inc

In Palm Beach County Health Care District v. Everglades Memorial Hospital, Inc., 658 So. 2d 577 (Fla. 4th DCA 1995), the hospital district and a managing corporation had entered into a forty year lease that could never be terminated and that contained a purchase option provision obligating the district to sell the hospital facilities to the managing corporation at the end of the lease for $ 100. See id. at 578. The lease also gave the managing corporation "substantial autonomy" over the hospital's management while the hospital district was "obligated to pay the hospital from ad valorem taxes based upon rates charged and expenses incurred by the hospital over which the district has no ultimate influence." Id. at 580. Noting that the hospital district was "powerless to respond to the public interest" and was "a mere funding mechanism" for the managing corporation, this Court found that the lease violated section 155.40 and thus invalidated the lease. Id.