Appeals rebuffed, court orders SUNY to keep LICH open
Full speed ahead at Brooklyn Supreme Court
At a hearing on Thursday, Supreme Court Justice Johnny Lee Baynes told attorneys that the Appellate Division had dismissed SUNY Downstate’s appeal of temporary restraining orders (TROs) prohibiting the closure of Long Island College Hospital (LICH).
The news sent a quiet rustle through the capacity crowd of LICH supporters and media jammed into the fourth-floor courtroom for the second day of the hearing pitting SUNY Downstate and the state Department of Health against several different groups suing to keep the hospital open.
Financially troubled Downstate, which acquired LICH two years ago, has been attempting to close the Cobble Hill hospital over the last six months but has faced increasingly stiff resistance from neighborhood residents, hospital staff and elected officials, who are pushing for SUNY to keep LICH open pending transfer to another operator.
Attorney Jim Walden, representing Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, six local civic groups and the wife of a patient, told supporters that contempt proceedings against SUNY, which had been stalled pending the appeal, could proceed.