Grant Center Hospital of Mississippi, Inc. v. Health Group of Jackson, Mississippi, Inc.

ROBERTSON, Justice,

for the Court:

I

This is a hospital licensing dispute. The case began as a contest over which of two for-profit corporations would fill a fifty-eight bed need in children’s and adolescent psychiatric care in the Rankin County/Greater Jackson area. Once state administrators awarded a certificate of need to one, the loser switched strategies and now vigorously asserts lack of need. En route we encounter a cute question of choice of (statutory) law in time. In the end, we reverse the Chancery Court and reinstate the administrative agency’s decision.

II

A

First, the cast of…