Hospital Told to Pay Bills of Measure O Foes

Community Memorial Hospital will have to pay the outstanding legal bills of its rivals from the Measure O fight last year, a Ventura County judge has ruled.

The Ventura hospital will be required to pay $29,094 to Santa Monica attorney Fred Woocher, who represented a grass-roots coalition opposed to the tobacco funds initiative. Woocher helped the coalition dispute the wording of the initiative in the sample ballot.

Measure O sought to shift control of $260 million in tobacco settlement money from county supervisors to a handful of private hospitals, including the initiative’s sponsor, Community Memorial Hospital. The initiative was rejected by 67% of the voters.

The coalition and the hospital clashed last summer over how to word the analysis of Measure O in the booklet, as well as how to phrase each side’s argument. Superior Court Judge Henry Walsh ordered that some of the ballot wording be changed.

Then the two sides sued each other over who should pay the legal bills.

David Maron, chairman of the Coalition Against Measure O, said the judge’s decision will show other public-minded citizens that they can come forward without worrying about losing their homes.

“The members of our coalition are no longer at risk,” he said. “It’s a relief to us all that we can finally put Measure O behind us.”

After a hearing earlier this month, Walsh ruled that both Woocher and the hospital’s attorney, James Parrinello, are theoretically entitled to fees because there were word changes ordered for both the hospital and the coalition. But the judge granted the financial award to Woocher because his clients lacked a financial interest in the outcome of the election.

“I’m very appreciative,” Woocher said Monday. “It is these types of awards that allow me to continue to take cases like this.”

Parrinello said the ruling “could have been worse.” The judge awarded Woocher less than he requested. Parrinello added that the hospital only filed suit in response to the coalition’s suit. “If they were entitled to fees, then we felt we were entitled to the same treatment,” he said.

Community Memorial Hospital officials have not decided whether to appeal the decision.