After
a city council voted to sell a public community hospital without the consent
of the hospital's Board of Trustees, a court ordered that the proceeds be held
in constructive trust to build another hospital (or similar purpose) at some
future date. The city challenged the trust, and the Court of Appeals of Tennessee
held that, as no city funds were used to build the hospital and no funds were
received by the hospital that would have otherwise gone to the city (the hospital
was built with bonds it repaid itself and a Hill-Burton loan), it would be "unconscionable
conduct" for the city to take the funds for general purpose use. The court
added that the city could not "reap where it has not sown."