CAMARILLO : District Accepts Hospital Merger

Board members of the Camarillo Health Care District have announced that they will not seek to revive their lawsuit against Pleasant Valley Hospital over its merger with St. John’s Regional Medical Center in Oxnard.

The board’s decision Wednesday effectively signals the end of all legal challenges to the merger, which was completed on Feb. 18.

“There comes a time to cut your losses,” board President John Rush said.

From the time the merger was announced in January, 1992, the health care district has run up more than $210,000 in legal expenses fighting the consolidation, district officials said.

But Rush said the board carried out its public mandate by pulling out all the stops to try to block the merger of the Camarillo hospital with the larger Oxnard medical center.

Rush and two other members of the health care district board were elected last November on the promise to fight the proposed consolidation.

But the district’s legal battle suffered one setback after another, including a Ventura County Superior Court judge’s refusal Feb. 3 to block the merger and the state Court of Appeal’s decision not to review the lower court ruling.

Two weeks ago, the Ventura County Superior Court dismissed the district’s lawsuit against Pleasant Valley Hospital, saying the district had no legal standing to press its claims that hospital directors violated their fiduciary duty when they approved the merger.