Opinion ID: 2364737
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Comparison with Other Boards and Entities

Text: That the Board is not an entity becomes clearer when the Board and Chapter 96 are compared with entities that have been recognized as such. The recent opinions of this Court contain examples of public entities. See, e.g., State ex rel. Regional Justice Information Service Commission v. Saitz, 798 S.W.2d 705, 707 (Mo. banc 1990) (REJIS, created under authority of § 70.260); State ex rel. Trimble v. Ryan, 745 S.W.2d 672 (Mo. banc 1988) (Bi-State Development Agency, an interstate compact agency formed under authority of § 70.370); State ex rel. St. Louis Housing Authority v. Gaertner, 695 S.W.2d 460, 463 (Mo. banc 1985) (municipal housing authority created under Chapter 99); State ex rel. New Liberty Hospital District v. Pratt, 687 S.W.2d 184 (Mo. banc 1985) (hospital district created under Chapter 206). These diverse entities have varying and distinct powers appropriate to fulfill the purposes for which they were created. However, all of these entities share the common feature of enabling statutes that expressly grant them corporate existence. See, e.g., § 70.260.2, RSMo Supp.1991 (REJIS, a body corporate and politic); § 70.370, art. III (Bi-State, a body corporate and politic); § 99.080.1 (housing authority shall constitute a municipal corporation and have power to have perpetual succession); § 206.010.2 (hospital district shall be a body corporate and political subdivision of state). The Board, on the other hand, has no existence except through the continued existence of the City of North Kansas City. [5] While the Board has some features in common with some of the entities in these cases, it lacks the fundamental feature of an existence separate and distinct from that of the City. Like the St. Louis Housing Authority, the Board is selected and may be removed by the city government. See St. Louis Housing Authority, 695 S.W.2d 460. Like the New Liberty Hospital District, the Board operates a public hospital. See New Liberty Hospital District, 687 S.W.2d 184. But, both of these entities are specifically granted corporate existence and do not depend upon any other entity for their existence. It is this aspect of the entities involved in these previous cases that sets them apart from the Board in this case. Aside from the entities that have been before this Court in sovereign immunity cases, the statutes have other examples that provide useful comparisons. The Board essentially argues that the legislature created the Board as an independent arm of the state, rather than a part of the City, for the sole purpose of running a hospital for the City. The legislature could have created such an entity, if it had wished. The law providing for hospital districts permits such an independent entity. See § 206.010.2. The statutes contain other examples of independent entities that might be created by the citizenry, such as the city library district, which shall be a body corporate. § 182.140. Street light maintenance districts are [t]o have perpetual existence. § 235.150. And if you create an ambulance district, it shall be a body corporate and a political subdivision of the state. § 190.010. The legislature did not include any grant of separate existence when it enacted the original law providing for city hospitals in third class cities. Neither has it added such a grant in any of the amendments to the law. The most recent amendment occurred in 1987 and explicitly listed the authority of a Chapter 96 board of trustees but did not give the board any authority to have perpetual succession or to be a body corporate. See § 96.150.5, RSMo Supp.1991. Lacking any separate existence, the Board is not an entity but is a part of the City of North Kansas City. [6] Not all of the statutes defining some part of government create entities. Statutes similar to the sections in Chapter 96 grant authority for zoning commissions and boards of adjustment, §§ 89.070-89.090, park boards in third class cities, §§ 90.500-90.570, and boards to operate municipally owned utilities, §§ 91.270, 91.480. The statutes do not grant corporate existence or political subdivision status to these boards either. These statutes govern the operation of parts of city government in the same way sections 96.150 through 96.228 govern operation of the Board. The statutes granting authority to the Board are like the statutes setting forth the powers of the mayor and city council in third class cities. See §§ 77.060-77.360. A city council has no corporate existence either. Rather, the city has corporate existence. § 77.010. A city has the power to sue and be sued, while the city council does not. [7] See id. Thus the Board is not a public entity in its own right, but rather a part of the City, and, for purposes of sovereign immunity, the Board enjoys such immunity as the City would enjoy.