Texas Attorney General Opinion: LO97-017 Page: 2 of 10
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The Honorable Hugo Berlanga - Page 2
the hospital or hospital system.4 Sections 281.050 and 281.051 deal with the authority of the board
to lease and contract. Section 281.050 provides in pertinent part: withih the approval of the
commissioners court, the board may ... lease ... and convey any property [or] property right...
to maintain a hospital, building, or other facility or to provide a service required by the district."
Section 281.051 authorizes the board of managers to contract with various entities withih the
approval of the commissioners court."
You ask about the relationship between these provisions and section 285.051 of the Health
and Safety Code, which authorizes the "governing body of a hospital district" to order the sale, lease,
or closure of all or part of a hospital upon a finding that the order is in the best interest of the
residents of the hospital district. Section 285.052 sets forth procedures whereby an order to sell or
close a hospital may be subject to voter approval. Whereas sections 281.050 and 281.051 appear to
preclude the board of managers from leasing the hospital facility without the approval of the
commissioners court, section 285.051 appears to leave the determination to the board of managers,
as the governing body of the hospital district.
In Attorney General Opinion DM-37, this office concluded that sections 285.051 and 285.052
applied to the governing body of a chapter 281 hospital district and thus authorized the El Paso
County Hospital District to close a dental clinic. See Attorney General Opinion DM-37 (1991) at 5.
That opinion did not address whether the El Paso County Commissioners Court had any authority
with regard to the closing. In 1988, however, this office addressed the relationship between the
statutory predecessor to sections 285.051 and 285.052, former article 4437c-2, and provisions of the
City of Amarillo Hospital District's 1957 enabling act, which gave the city's governing body certain
authority with respect to hospital district sales and leases of land. See Attorney General Opinion JM-
864 (1988). Apparently reasoning that former article 4437c-2, a later enacted provisions dealing
more specifically with the sale, lease, or closure of a hospital district hospital, prevailed over the
enabling act, the 1988 opinion concluded that the city's governing body had no authority with regard
to the sale, lease, or closure of a hospital: "Article 4437c-2, V.T.C.S., does not give the city of
Amarillo's governing body any authority to participate in a decision by the hospital district's board
of managers to sell, lease, or close its hospital facility. If the proposed action is a sale or closure of
the facility, the voters may petition for an election on the issue of approving or disapproving the
proposed sale or closure." Id. at 5. See also Jackson County Hosp. Dist. v. Jackson County Citizens
for ContinuedHasp. Care, 669 S.W.2d 147 (Tex. App.-Corpus Christi 1984, no writ) (suggesting
that former V.T.C.S. article 4437c-2 applied to hospital district created pursuant to 1979 enabling
act).
Id. 281.048.
'Former article4437c-2 was enacted in 1981. See Act of June 1, 1981,67th Leg., R.S., ch. 583, 1981 Tax. Gen.
Laws 2361, 2361.(LO97-017)
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Texas. Attorney-General's Office. Texas Attorney General Opinion: LO97-017, text, March 10, 1997; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth277201/m1/2/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.