Allina Medical Clinic v. Cnty. of Washington

In Allina Medical Clinic v. Cnty. of Washington, No. C2-02-1994, 2008 WL 169734 (Minn. T.C. Jan. 15, 2008) the Court ruled that payments Allina received for the use of two of 33 examination rooms for two hours a week did not render the clinic property income-producing. Pursuant to a written agreement, Allina allowed the St. Paul Heart Clinic "to provide cardiodiagnostic services at Allina Clinic for two hours per week. Heart Clinic pays a $60 per hour fee for the use of two exam rooms at Allina Clinic." The agreement did not identify particular exam rooms, and Allina personnel used the exam rooms at all other times. Id. The Court summarized the resulting situation as follows: Allina uses and occupies the 33 exam rooms for a total of 57 hours per week or 1,881 exam room hours per week, while Heart Clinic used the exam rooms for 2 hours of the 1,881 exam room hours per week. Heart Clinic's use represents less than 0.22% of Allina's medical exam room usage. Id. Citing Allina's failure to provide income and expense information, the county moved to dismiss. Id. Allina responded that "the 60-Day Rule does not apply in this case because the Subject Property is not income-producing property." Id. The Court agreed with Allina and therefore denied the county's motion to dismiss: Petitioner is in the business of operating Allina Clinic as a health care provider in order to generate its income.... The use of less than 1% of its premises to generate a fee of $120 per week, does not transform the Subject Property into an income-producing property. In other words, it is not the property itself that produces Petitioner's income but rather, the business operation on the property of providing health care to its patient population that produces Petitioner's income.