Olathe ? Health Midwest’s compensation of chief executive officer Richard W. Brown can’t be challenged by the Kansas attorney general, a judge ruled Thursday.

The matter of Brown’s pay was one issue in a lawsuit that the Attorney General’s Office filed against Health Midwest and related parties last month. The litigation involves the proposed $1.13 billion sale of the nonprofit Health Midwest to for-profit hospital company HCA Inc.

“This court finds that Kansas may not exercise authority over how a Missouri nonprofit compensates its CEO,” Johnson County District Judge Thomas E. Foster said.

The sale of the Kansas City area’s largest health system is due to close on March 31, but it is being challenged by the attorneys general of both Kansas and Missouri. The dispute centers on how proceeds of the sale would be used.

The sale would result in establishment of a foundation or foundations with proceeds of between $700 million and $800 million. Both attorneys general questioned the proposed makeup of the foundation that would oversee those funds.

Health Midwest challenged their authority to oversee the sale and the creation of a nonprofit foundation, and both states countersued.

In the Kansas lawsuit, the Attorney General’s Office alleged that the five members of Health Midwest’s executive compensation committee, who also are Health Midwest board members, conspired with Brown to provide him with excessive compensation consisting of a $7 million “golden parachute” if the sale to HCA closed.

Lawyers for Brown said the court should dismiss the attorney general’s claims against Brown and the executive compensation committee members, saying the Kansas attorney general can’t regulate the internal affairs of a company based outside the state.

Whitney Watson, a spokesman for Phill Kline, who just succeeded Stovall as attorney general, said, “We disagree with the decision, and we will seek an immediate appeal.”