NATCHEZ — The City of Natchez has been ordered to reverse its decision to sell the Old General Hospital to a Jackson nonprofit.

District 6-2 Circuit Court Judge Debra Blackwell issued a ruling Friday in the lawsuit filed against the city by Ginger Hyland and Charlotte Copeland appealing the city’s decision to sell the hospital to Magnolia Medical Foundation.

Hyland, who owns the Towers, and Copeland, a local realtor, filed the appeal in 2018 after aldermen elected to hand the building over to the Magnolia Medical to refurbish the building into senior living apartments.

After reviewing the evidence, Blackwell agreed with Hyland and Copeland that the city abandoned the requirements set by its Request for Proposals.

Magnolia Medical failed to include a $5,000 deposit as required by the RFP. Despite the requirement, the city waived the deposit for Magnolia Medical after the deadline for proposals had expired, Blackwell said.

Also, Blackwell said the RFP required that “all offers submitted shall remain valid for a period of 90 calendar days from the opening date of the RFP …” and set a tentative schedule for awarding the bid, that the city abandoned.

“The question before this court is now whether the decision of the City of Natchez to accept the offer of Magnolia Medical Foundation in the manner that it did, was legally and lawfully made, pursuant to law and proper procedure, and this Court finds that it was not,” Blackwell wrote.

Blackwell said the city did not sell the property under the provisions of the Mississippi Code as stated in the city’s resolution to declare the Old General Property as surplus property.

Blackwell said the Attorney General, in an opinion requested by City Attorney Bob Latham, said the city had “developed a proposal process that does not exist under state law.”

“There was nothing in the RFP to give the City the authority to deviate from its self-imposed competitive process,” Blackwell said.

Blackwell said the city also changed a requirement of the RFP by taking action to sell the property 18 months after the RFP’s deadline “without notice to the public that it would be on the agenda.”

Blackwell said despite the city’s arguments in court that they intended the RFP to “generate interest in the property,” the stated purpose of the RFP was to sell the property.

“(The City’s) actions were clearly shown to be arbitrary and capricious or without substantial evidentiary basis,” Blackwell said.

Blackwell ordered the city reverse its decision to sell the property to Magnolia Medical and to either comply with the requirements set by the city’s resolution to dispose the property or issue another RFP “with definitive guidelines for all bidders and the City of Natchez to follow.”