LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) - The Good Samaritan Foundation planned to appeal a decision by Fayette Circuit Judge Gary Payne that The Kentucky Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church is the rightful owner of an estimated $20 million from the foundation's sale of a hospital.
The Good Samaritan Foundation has traditionally made annual grants, primarily to organizations that provide health care to needy Kentuckians and to health education efforts.
Dr. James Holsinger, chairman of the foundation board, said Thursday he expects to appeal the judge's decision to turn the funds over to the church. The money for the grants came from a trust created with money from the 1995 sale of Good Samaritan Hospital in Lexington to Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corp. After the sale, the board of the Good Samaritan Foundation put the proceeds into an endowment fund that typically awarded about $1 million a year in grants.
The Methodist Church filed suit in 2000, claiming it owned the hospital at the time of the sale and should control the money. Payne ruled three years later that the church was the rightful owner and that the money was actually being held in trust for the church.
The foundation appealed, and the appeals court sent the case back to Payne.
In Payne's final ruling on the case, signed Dec. 22, he reaffirmed his earlier decision and ordered that the trustees.
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