SUNY fights back against recent LICH court orders
Last week, a Brooklyn Supreme Court justice issued an order allowing Brooklyn community groups and the New York City Public Advocate to assist in the selection of a new operator for the struggling Long Island College Hospital (LICH). The State University of New York-Downstate (SUNY Downstate), LICH’s present operator, has issued appeals requesting a stay on the appointment of any operator and any other disruptions to LICH’s assets.
In 2011, Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Carolyn Demarest granted a petition allowing LICH to transfer its assets to SUNY on the express promise by SUNY that it would keep LICH a functioning hospital. Earlier this year, SUNY announced its desire and plans to close LICH, prompting Demarest to revisit her 2011 order.
Believing that in its 2011 asset transfer request, SUNY possessed a “more sinister purpose to seize [LICH’s] assets and dismantle the hospital,” Demarest ordered all of LICH’s assets be transferred back, that a new operator be appointed or assigned to LICH to receive and manage all of its assets and that a trust be established to control the assets.