VERMILLION, S.D.(KCCR)- The fall term of the South Dakota Supreme Court is in session this week at the University of South Dakota School of Law.  Justices Wednesday heard the case of Avera St. Mary’s Hospital in Pierre versus Sully County.  Avera is seeking payment from Sully County over services provided to a seasonal grounds keeper at the Sutton Bay Golf Course who needed an appendectomy.  Avera attorney Robert Nelson says the burden of payment falls on the county.

Attorney Jack Heib represented Sully County in the 40-minute oral argument before Justices.  He says payment is not an obligation put upon a county.

The grounds keeper lives in Sully County approximately six months a year to work at the golf course.  The county contends that makes him a non-resident.  Avera is appealing a circuit court decision in the case involving the Court’s interpretations of a 1918 Supreme Court case and state law regarding a county’s duty to provide relief for non-residents in distress.