By Tara Kyle
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — Lawyers for St. Vincent’s will appear in bankruptcy court Thursday to ask a judge to block a lawsuit that seeks the release of financial documents related to the hospital’s closure.
The motion requests that the federal bankruptcy court intervene in a lawsuit filed on Aug. 16 at the Manhattan Supreme Court by representatives of the Coalition for a New Village Hospital, including civil rights lawyer Yetta Kurland, who believe that St. Vincent's administrators made financial decisions that contributed to the hospital's closure.
That lawsuit seeks to compel the state’s Department of Health to release financial documents on the basis of Freedom of Information Law (FOIL).
“I’ve never seen a debtor in bankruptcy court attempt to deny the public a right to access its public records,” Kurland said.
The lawyer also noted that the lawsuit asks for action from the Department of Health and does not name St. Vincent’s as a defendant.
But St. Vincent's lawyers are asking the bankruptcy judge to get involved anyway. At the time of the lawsuit filing, advocates alleged that the hospital's management dropped $300,000 on a golf outing and $10 million annually on executive salaries.
“The merits of the hospital’s debts and the future of its assets will be addressed in the Bankruptcy Court and with the Hospital’s creditors, and not through a side show that Ms. Kurland is trying to make a name for herself at the expense of many people working on behalf of the hospital,” St. Vincent's counsel Adam Rogoff said in an email.
So far, the Department of Health has turned over some documents asked for in the lawsuit, primarily related to the closing of outpatient services at St. Vincent’s, according to Kurland. But she said the Department has not released the majority of requested items.
A spokesperson for the Department of Health declined to comment.
Pending the outcome of Thursday’s bankruptcy court hearing, Kurland and attorneys for the New York State Department of Health will appear in Supreme Court on Sept. 8.
