The Ontario Superior Court Of Justice has ruled against the city of Sarnia in the ownership of the former Sarnia General Hospital building.
Judge Scott Campbell also said the city is responsible for legal costs in the case against Bluewater Health.
The two parties have been at odds over the ownership of the derelict buildings on the city-owned hospital lands for almost two years.
Mayor Mike Bradley says the city's legal department will look over the ruling.
"He's saying basically that the city does have ownership of the property and that there's a long, convoluted number of things that have happened over the last decades that support that," says Bradley.
"That has to be analyzed by the city's lawyers to see if there are grounds for appeal."
The estimated cost of demolition has ranged from $3 million to $8.8 million. The province has only offered to pay $75,000 towards those costs, although it provided $15 million in demolition funding for a hospital in London and $4 million for a facility in Windsor.
Mayor Bradley says council will deal with the matter at its meeting on June 20.
