CLINTON COMMUNITY HOSPITAL CORPORATION, APPELLANT,
v.
SOUTHERN MARYLAND MEDICAL CENTER ET AL., APPELLEES

4th Cir. | 1975-02-10
No. 74-1688
Before BRYAN, Senior Circuit Judge, and WINTER and FIELD, Circuit Judges.
510 F.2d 1037 United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit (1975) Positive Treatment
Cited by 18 cases

AI-generated. These summaries, headnotes, and key points are machine-generated and may contain errors or omissions. Always verify against the full opinion text below. Not legal advice.


Holding

The court held that the appellant lacked standing to sue and failed to state a claim upon which relief could be granted.


Facts & Procedural History

Appellant hospital sued to enjoin the construction of a new hospital by a competitor, alleging adverse environmental impacts on the proposed hospital.…

The full statement of facts, procedural history, and disposition for this case are member content.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

© FLexlaw, Inc. — AI-generated enrichments are proprietary. All rights reserved.


Opinion of the Court
PER CURIAM:

PER CURIAM:

Pleading the National Environmental Policy Act1, the National Housing Act2, the Public Health Service Act3, the Comprehensive Health Planning and Public Health Services Act4, and the Noise Control Act5, appellant, Clinton Community Hospital, brought this suit in the Maryland Federal District Court in October, 1973 against the Southern Maryland Medical Center, HEW Secretary Weinberger, and HUD Secretary Lynn to enjoin the construction of SMMC’s hospital. SMMC is a joint venture of several physicians to construct a 200-bed hospital slightly more than three miles due south of a major runway at Andrews Air Force Base in Prince George’s County, Maryland. Appellant is a 33-bed facility located some two miles northwest of SMMC’s proposed site.

Stripped to its essentials, appellant’s argument is that SMMC’s proposed hospital would be adversely affected by its environment, specifically the air base and concomitant air traffic. The District Court granted SMMC’s motion to dismiss and sua sponte dismissed the case against the Secretaries.

The District Judge correctly held that appellant had no standing to sue. In the fourth paragraph of the appellant’s amended complaint it is stated:

“Plaintiff [appellant] has a pecuniary interest in the outcome of this proceeding, inasmuch as the construction of the SMMC hospital two miles from Plaintiff’s existing hospital will result in its eventual closing, since, as a 33 bed hospital, it will be unable to compete with the proposed 200 bed hospital. . .

If it has in fact suffered an injury, appellant’s economic well-being vis-a-vis its competitors is certainly not “arguably within the zone of interests to be protected” by the Federal environmental laws. Association of Data Processing Service Organizations, Inc. v. Camp, 397 U.S. 150, 153, 90 S.Ct. 827, 25 L.Ed.2d 184 (1970).

Additionally, as the District Court noted, appellant has failed to state a claim upon which relief can be granted. It contends that injunctive relief is in order because of the impact of the existing environment on the proposed, hospital. Such a claim turns the statutory scheme 180 degrees around. As it is stated, the claim was properly dismissed by the District Court.

For these and the reasons stated by the District Court, we affirm the dismissal of the case. Clinton Community Hospital Corporation v. Southern Maryland Medical Center, et al., 374 F.Supp. 450 (D.Md.1974).

Affirmed.

. 42 U.S.C. §§ 4331 — 4334 (1970).

. 12 U.S.C. § 1715z — 7(d)(4) (1970).

. 42 U.S.C. § 291d(a)(l) (1970).

. 42 U.S.C. § 246 (1966).

. 42 U.S.C. §§ 4901-4917 (1972).


Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Cited By

Previewing 3 of 9 citing cases — full citator treatment, depth of discussion, and citing context are member features.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

Authorities Cited

Full citator, related cases, and AI research tools

Open in FLexlaw