Hospitals, eleemosynary corporations. They are either aggregate, in which the master or warden and his brethren have the estate of inheritance; or sole, in which the master, etc., only has the estate in him, and the brethren or sisters, having college and common seal in them, must consent, or the master alone has the estate, not having college or common seal. So hospitals are eligible, donatives, or preventative, Jac. Law Dict.
By 39 Eliz. c. 5, made perpetual by 21 Jac. 1, c. 1, any person seised of an estate in fee-simple may, by deed enrolled in Chancery, erect and found a hospital for the sustenance and relief of 'the maimed, poor, needy, or impotent people'; but no such hospital may be erected unless endowed with lands or hereditaments of the yearly value of 20l.
For power of local authorities to provide hospitals for their districts, see Public Health Act, 1875, s. 131; Isolation Hospitals Acts, 1893, 1901 (56 & 57 Vict. c. 68; 1 Edw. 7, c. 8), all repealed from Oct. 1937 and replaced by Part VI. Of the Public Health Act, 1936; see ss. 181-186.
In general the governors of a hospital will not be liable for negligent medical treatment by the staff employed, Hillyer v. St. Bartholomew's Hospital, (1909) 2 KB 820; Evans v. Liverpool Corporation, (1906) 1 KB 160. As to exemption from land tax, see s. 25 of the Land Tax Act, 1797 (38 Geo. 3, c. 5), and St. Thomas', etc., Hospitals v. Hudgell, (1901) 1 KB 364; and from property tax, see Income Tax Act, 1918, and Finance Acts (13 & 14 Geo. 5, c. 14), s. 21; (15 & 16 Geo. 5, c. 36), s. 19, and (16 & 17 Geo. 5, c. 22), s. 28, Royal Antideluvian Society of Buffaloes v. Owens, (1928) 1 KB 446.
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