In bringing the suit, the village hired attorney Ari Scharg and others from the Edelson firm. The village alleged Pipeline’s decision to purchase and then close the hospital violated its state permit and state law. The village claimed the hospital was essential to promote public health in the region, as Westlake served a largely low-income population. The village asserted Pipeline had reneged on its pledge to Illinois hospital regulators to continue operating the hospital. However, Pipeline’s efforts to close Westlake were frustrated for months by legal challenges launched by the village of Melrose Park and their Edelson attorneys. Pipeline claimed the hospital was losing millions of dollars each month. In the months following, Pipeline sought to close Westlake, asserting the hospital’s finances were much worse than they had believed at the time of purchase. Pipeline, through SRC, had purchased Westlake Hospital in January, as part of its acquisition of a group of Chicago area hospitals and health care facilities. In these cases, the corporate entity targeted by Melrose Park is known as SRC Hospital Investments II LLC. Those owners, a group of corporate entities under the umbrella of Pipeline Health, had been hit with two lawsuits from Melrose Park. In late September, Judge Thorne had initially ruled against Melrose Park, finding the so-called automatic stay, which puts on hold any pending legal actions against the debtors seeking bankruptcy protection, should apply not only to the hospital, but also to Westlake’s owners. Melrose Park is seeking potentially steep financial sanctions against the hospital for using the federal bankruptcy process to close the hospital, after a Cook County judge had ordered the hospital to remain open.Īny money the village reaps from a judgment in their favor could be used to pay their lawyers, from the prominent Chicago class action firm, Edelson P.C. In her new order, Judge Thorne modified the automatic stay to allow the village to continue suing Pipeline in Cook County court. Thorne agreed to modify an earlier order she had issued, in which she had asserted the same bankruptcy protection that applies to the holding company for the shuttered Westlake Hospital should also apply to the affiliated corporations that sent the hospital into bankruptcy. The judge, however, reiterated the village cannot ever hope to win a court order forcing Westlake’s corporate parent, Pipeline Health Systems, to reopen the hospital. A federal bankruptcy judge has cleared the way for the village of Melrose Park to resume its effort to punish the owners of Westlake Hospital for using bankruptcy to close the hospital.
0 kommentar(er)
