Request By:
Hon. Charles R. Luker
Attorney at Law
108 East Fourth Street
London, Kentucky 40741
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; Walter C. Herdman, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
This is in answer to your letter of February 15, 1979, in which you relate that you are the attorney for the Marymount Hospital and Seton Home Health Servides, Inc., both located at London, Kentucky. The Seton Home Health Services is operated by the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth, as a charitable medical service for the people of the community.
Recently the corporation has made application to the City of London seeking a donation to assist in the continuation of its' services. The city attorney of the City of London has questioned the validity of such a donation and has referred to OAG 79-59 as supporting his view. You do not have a copy of this opinion and you desire to know whether or not such a donation would be valid.
Our response to your question would be in the negative. As pointed out in OAG 79-59, a copy of which is enclosed, the law is well settled that all appropriations and expenditures of public money by a municipality must be for a public and corporate purpose as distinguished from a private purpose and no donation can be made to any individual or company not under the control of the city. There is also an objection found in Section 179 of the constitution which prohibits municipalities from making contributions to private corporations. In addition to OAG 79-59 we are enclosing a copy of OAG 63-568 specifically dealing with rights of a city to contribute to a charitable hospital owned and operated by a private religious group.