Measure O Loser Still Balks Over Legal Fees

Although it spent more than $2 million on a failed attempt to secure a share of the county’s tobacco settlement, Community Memorial Hospital is still battling over payment of $45,000 in legal fees to a citizens group that opposed the hospital’s ballot measure.

Community Memorial has appealed a Superior Court judge’s ruling that orders the hospital to pay a Santa Monica attorney who represented a grass-roots coalition that fought the hospital’s attempt to seize control of the tobacco funds.

“The notion they would continue this litigation over that small amount of money was a surprise,” said Fred Woocher, the coalition’s attorney.

James Parrinello, a lawyer for the hospital, disagreed, saying the judge’s ruling was wrongly preferential to the coalition and should be challenged.

“We just disagree with the judge’s treatment of the attorney fees and think he should have granted both requests or denied both,” Parrinello said. “We felt that rather than write a check for $45,000, it is legitimate to ask the Court of Appeal to decide this.”

Private hospitals, led by Community Memorial, put Measure O on the ballot last fall and spent more than $2 million promoting the initiative, which sought to transfer control of the county’s $260 million in tobacco settlement money to the area’s seven private hospitals.

The measure was rejected by 67% of voters.

The coalition and the hospital argued last summer over how to word an analysis of Measure O that was included in the ballot pamphlet mailed to voters, as well as how to phrase each side’s argument.

Ventura County Superior Court Judge Henry Walsh ordered that some of the ballot wording be changed. The two sides then sued each other over who should pay the legal bills resulting from that litigation.

Walsh ruled in February that--although both Woocher and Parrinello were theoretically entitled to fees--the money should go to Woocher, because his clients lacked a financial interest in the outcome of the election.

Community Memorial filed its appeal of that ruling April 25 and asked the appellate court to reverse Walsh’s decision and have the coalition pay the hospital $37,000 in attorney fees, Parrinello said.

Coalition leaders said they were disturbed by the hospital’s decision to press for legal fees, calling the appeal an act of revenge.

The hospital, said Jack Nicholl, co-chairman of the coalition, “may be unhappy that they lost the election and Judge Walsh ruled against them, but to continue to play a leadership role in this community they are going to have to accept their defeats as well as their victories.”

Additionally, Nicholl called the appeal “vindictive” and “aimed at intimidating future citizen activists in Ventura County.”

It will be several months before the case is heard in court, because of a request for copies of court transcripts by hospital attorneys, Woocher said.