Topeka ? The deal Kansas Atty. Gen. Phill Kline reached with Health Midwest after a costly legal fight was similar to a tentative agreement reached a month earlier, according to court documents opened this week.

Details of the aborted settlement were made public after Johnson County Judge Thomas Foster said this week that the gag order in the case had been lifted.

The legal fight between Kline and nonprofit Health Midwest was over how the area’s largest health care provider should distribute the proceeds from its sale to HCA Inc., a for-profit company.

HCA announced Tuesday that it had completed its acquisition of Health Midwest, paying about $855 million for the health care system.

Both Kansas and Missouri had claims to part of the money under a legal doctrine that a charity’s assets belong to the people. If a charity converts into a for-profit, it must compensate the people for the loss of the charitable activities.

Kline and Health Midwest struck a deal Feb. 13 that created a Kansas-based foundation to distribute 20 percent of the assets, with the remaining 80 percent going to a similar foundation in Missouri. The money was split unevenly because Health Midwest had nine hospitals in Missouri and three in Kansas.

In announcing the settlement, Kline had said: “Ten days after I took office, Kansas had no assets from this sale. Sixty days after I assumed office, Kansas’ interests have been protected.”

But The Kansas City Star reported Thursday that Kline had rejected a similar settlement proposal a month earlier that would have avoided litigation.

According to court transcripts and an e-mail referring to the settlement, obtained by The Star, both sides were close to a resolution that only needed Kline’s approval. Health Midwest’s board already had voted to accept the agreement.

Kline rejected the agreement.

Kline’s spokesman, Whitney Watson, said Kline believed an early proposal gave too much control over a resulting foundation to the Attorney General’s Office.

“He wanted control to be spread,” Watson said of Kline. “He wanted there to be local control.”

A day after Kline rejected the offer, litigation resumed. The ensuing court battle between Kline and Health Midwest lasted a month.

It included appeals to the state Supreme Court and cost, by some accounts, nearly $900,000, paid from sale proceeds.

Kline and Health Midwest eventually reached a new settlement agreement on Feb. 13, almost a month from the day the previous settlement talks collapsed.

The biggest difference in the Feb. 13 settlement from the earlier proposal is that the new settlement allows members of the Kansas Legislature to take part in selecting members of the Kansas foundation board, a provision sought by Kline’s office.