By Cari Hachmann
A settlement was reached between Memorial Health Services and the city of San Clemente in a lawsuit regarding the city’s former hospital site at 654 Camino De Los Mares.
The U.S. District Court ordered the case dismissed without prejudice on June 13, according to court documents, when a joint notice of settlement was filed.
Madison Spach, Jr., an attorney representing Memorial Health wrote in a letter to Deborah Lewman, courtroom clerk, advising the court of the settlement between the two parties.
“We have exchanged the settlement document, and counsel and staff have approved it, and final approval is subject to the approval of City Council of San Clemente and the boards of Memorial,” Spach wrote.
The city has not yet released details on the settlement as it is still being finalized.
In February, Federal Judge David O. Carter ruled that the city did not violate the law when it zoned the land on which its last and only hospital was located at 654 Camino De Los Mares.
“The Property at issue is a 6.63-acre parcel that is small enough under California law to be subject to spot zoning,” the federal judge stated in his ruling.
Memorial Health Services sued the city after it claimed the zoning was unfair and that it could not financially support the hospital, which closed in May 2016.
At the time, MHS demanded $42.5 million in retribution.
While the city defended itself on the zoning changes portion of the lawsuit, as of February, it had yet to be decided whether Memorial Health Services would be granted compensation.
The San Clemente Times will continue to report on the story as it unfolds.
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