TITLE 31 HEALTH

Section 7. Regulation and Construction of Hospitals and Other Health Care Facilities, 31-7-1 through 31-7-412.

ARTICLE 3 GRANTS FOR CONSTRUCTION AND MODERNIZATION OF MEDICAL FACILITIES

31-7-57. Procedure for grants to sponsors of construction projects; injunction of operation by transferee in violation of article.

1. For each construction project, there shall be submitted to the state agency an application for state funds.
2. Upon approving an application under this Code section, the state agency shall submit a budget request to the Office of Planning and Budget, based upon such application. Approval by the Office of Planning and Budget shall constitute an obligation of the state.
3. Payments to the sponsor of a construction project shall be made in installments as construction progresses at intervals to be determined at the discretion of the state agency; and the state agency shall have the right to inspect and audit records and accounts of the sponsor as a condition precedent to making payments.
4. If any publicly owned and publicly operated medical facility, auxiliary medical facility, or mental health center for which funds have been paid under this Code section shall be leased to any corporation, person, organization, or body other than one eligible to receive a grant under this article or shall be sold or used for any purpose contrary to the provision under which the grant was made, at any time within 20 years after completion of construction, and such change in lease, sale, or use is not approved by the state agency, such agency may bring an equitable proceeding for writ of injunction against any person, firm, corporation, or organization operating in violation of this article. The proceedings shall be filed in the county in which such persons reside or, in the case of a firm or corporation, where such firm or corporation maintains its principal office; and, unless it is shown that such person, firm, or corporation which has leased such medical facility, auxiliary medical facility, or mental health center would have been eligible to accept the grant-in-aid from the state in the first instance and the lease has been approved by the state agency or the sale or use has been approved by such agency, the writ of injunction shall issue and such person, firm, or corporation shall be perpetually enjoined throughout the state from operating in violation of the provisions of this subsection. It shall not be necessary in order to obtain the equitable relief provided in this subsection that the state agency show that such person, firm, or corporation is ineligible nor to prove that there is no adequate remedy at law. In addition, the state agency shall be entitled to bring an action and recover from the transferor and transferee of any facility specified in this subsection such percentage of the value of the facility as the state grant bore toward the total construction cost of that facility as determined by agreement of the parties or by action brought in court.

(Ga. L. 1949, p. 263, § 7; Ga. L. 1955, p. 410, § 6; Code 1933, § 88-2109, enacted by Ga. L. 1964, p. 499, § 1; Code 1933, § 88-2108, enacted by Ga. L. 1966, p. 716, § 1; Ga. L. 1985, p. 149, § 31; Ga. L. 2015, p. 385, § 4-6/HB 252.)

The 2015 amendment, effective July 1, 2015, in subsection (d), deleted "mental retardation center," following "auxiliary medical facility," in the first and second sentences, substituted "provisions of this subsection" for "provisions set out above" at the end of the second sentence, and substituted "specified in this subsection" for "specified above" in the middle of the last sentence.