August 16, 1993

Mr. Jim Slattery, Chairman
Bennett County Commission
P.O. Box 460
Martin, SD 57551

OFFICIAL OPINION NO. 93-05

Qualifications of Trustee of County Hospital

Dear Mr. Slattery:

You have requested an official opinion from this Office based upon the following factual situation:

FACTS:

As chairman, writing on behalf of the commissioners of Bennett County, you have requested an interpretation of SDCL 34-8-7. A situation has developed on your hospital board in which you need the phrase "legally-qualified physician or nurse" to be interpreted. The question you have is in regards to licensure. The person at issue does not actually perform any medical duties, but is there in an advisory capacity. In your area, it would be difficult to find a nurse or physician with an active status license who is a freeholder of the county and is not an employee of the facility.

Based upon the foregoing facts, you have the asked the following question:

QUESTION:

Whether a legally-qualified physician or nurse acting as a trustee of a county hospital, as provided in SDCL 34-8-7, need be licensed to actively practice?

IN RE QUESTION:

SDCL 34-8-7 sets forth:

To manage or assist them in the management of a county hospital, the board of county commissioners may appoint a board of trustees consisting of five competent and responsible freeholders of the county, one of whom shall be a legally- qualified physician or nurse, in which case one member of said board shall be appointed for a term of one year, one for a term of two years, one for a term of three years, one for a term of four years, and one for a term of five years.

Their terms of office shall expire on the first Monday of July of the year of expiration. Thereafter it shall be the duty of such board of county commissioners annually at their regular meeting in July to appoint for a term of five years a successor to the trustee whose term of office shall expire during that year.

Any member of such board of trustees may be removed at any time by the board of county commissioners.

It is a fundamental principle of statutory construction that if the language of a statute is clear, then one can assume the Legislature meant what the statute says, and should give its words and phrases a plain meaning and effect. Caldwell v. John Morrell and Company, 489 N.W.2d 353, 364 (S.D. 1992). The courts will assume that statutes mean what they say and that the legislators have said what they meant. Petition of Famous Brands, Inc., 347 N.W.2d 882, 885 (S.D. 1984). In that vein, if the Legislature had meant to establish as a prerequisite that the trustee be licensed in any particular fashion, then it would have used the word "licensed." Instead, the Legislature used the term "legally qualified." In my opinion, if the physician or nurse meets the requirements of licensure as set forth in SDCL ch. 36-4 or ch. 36-9, respectively, then he or she satisfies the requirements of SDCL 34-8-7, regardless of his or her actual licensure status. The fact that the trustee is specifically limited to management in that capacity, as opposed to practicing, supports my conclusion. Obviously, the person's background and education are more important in this situation than is his or her license status, a fact the Legislature well may have contemplated, especially in relation to rural counties. Thus, the answer to your question is that a registered, inactive status license is sufficient to qualify the trustee for that position under the dictates of SDCL 34-8-7.

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