[Updated in Comments Aug 23, 2014]

Next week, Kentucky’s Attorney General will plead in Jefferson and Franklin County Circuit Courts to be added as an intervening defendant in the disputes between Norton Healthcare and the University of Louisville over control of Norton Kosair Children’s Hospital, and that between Kosair Charities and Norton over the use of charitable contributions and the right to raise money in the name of the hospital. The outcomes will ultimately determine the relationships (or lack thereof) between Norton, Kosair, and the University. Relations have not been going well in recent years with UofL seeking to switch its pediatric activities from Norton to KentuckyOne Health, and Kosair charities moving to substitute UofL for Norton as a chief beneficiary of its charity. Continue reading “Kentucky Attorney General Moves to Intervene in Norton- UofL- Kosair Disputes over Children’s Hospital.”

I made a trip to Frankfort Circuit Court this morning in part to obtain additional documents related to this legal dispute, but chiefly to attend the hearing in Judge Wingate’s court that rekindles the court proceedings that were stayed last February in order to give the two parties a chance for mediation. As I recently reported, court-ordered mediation failed to produce a mutually agreeable result. Several sources confirm my understanding that after two mediation sessions, the parties were offered a chance to continue and that the University of Louisville unilaterally declined to do so. UofL has not responded to my private email or public request for confirmation or comment. I had a naive hope that the report of the mediator to the court would illuminate matters, but alas, the brief report tells us nothing more than that mediation failed. Nonetheless, we have additional publicly available court filings that give us a pretty good idea of the issues in dispute.

First-round action.
This morning, as anticipated, Norton’s attorneys entered their motion to lift the stay (which was accepted), their motion to dismiss UofL’s counterclaims (also apparently accepted), and to submit their First Amended Complaint to the court. UofL objected to this latter motion on the grounds that the amended complaint contained a motion to enforce an oral settlement that Norton– but not UofL– claims to have been reached.  Norton claims the the University blew up that agreement the next day by reintroducing poison pills that it knew would be deal-breakers. UofL claims the parties were still negotiating.  The argument in court today was that if in fact an enforceable agreement had been reached, all the other collateral issues would fade away and the litigation that might otherwise take 5 or 6 years would be simplified. The Judge tended to agree with this argument.

When all was said and done, the gist of it is that Judge Wingate allowed Norton to file its amended complaint as is but required that the parties focus their discovery and litigation over the next 60 days on whether or not Norton and the University did in fact reach the oral agreement identified in the complaint that Norton wants the court to enforce. Norton would have at that time the option to file a separate motion to enforce. Continue reading “University of Louisville vs. Norton Healthcare Spins Up Again in the Courts”

Breaking News. June 16, 6:20 pm.

It’s back to the mattresses.

It’s official. The court-ordered mediation between the two long-time partners over control of Norton-Kosair Children’s Hospital has broken down. Some additional details are becoming available but I do not yet have the independent report to the court by the mediator, Judge Bill Graham. Apparently only two mediation sessions were held on May 6, and June 4. It will be instructive and valuable to the community to learn what the barriers to compromise were and what the circumstances were that caused Judge Graham to report to the court that the mediation was unsuccessful. It is my understanding that UofL declined to continue the process. [As of June 18, The University has not responded to my email request for confirmation or comment.]

Some additional court documents are becoming available. The failure of mediation is apparently so definite, that Norton has petitioned the the court to lift its stay of Feb 14 to allow legal procedures to continue. I will analyze materials as I am able and will place links below to new documents as I obtain or receive them. Come back to see any additions and lend your insights in the comment section.

This is truly a shame.

Peter Hasselbacher, MD
President, KHPI
Emeritus Professor of Medicine, UofL
June 16, 2014

I am assembling and updating court and litigation documents below for the convenience of all. Click the “Continue Reading” button to access the material. Continue reading “Mediation between University of Louisville and Norton Healthcare Over Children’s Hospital Unsuccessful.”

It has been for four full months since the the Franklin Circuit Court Order requiring mediation of the dispute between Norton Healthcare and the University of Louisville over UofL’s demand for physical control of Children’s Hospital. Since then, no information has been made available to the public about the status of the mediation, or for that matter, even whether or not a mediator had been selected!

In the meantime, I am unaware of any thaw in the overall frigid relationship between the two institutions. In fact, with Kosair Charities (UofL’s new best-friend-forever) piling on to Norton with a lawsuit of its own over Children’s Hospital, things have gotten even more complicated and ugly. Commercial rivalry between the two downtown hospital organizations– Norton and KentuckyOne Health– continues unabated and is likely to get worse. KentuckyOne (which manages UofL’s hospital operations including its cardiac services and Neo-natal ICU) cannot be happy with the recent departure of some of its top interventional cardiologists to Norton. The pot is still being stirred. Whether or not KentuckyOne is currently a formal participant in the Children’s Hospital matter, it also has an immense stake in the outcome.

In his order of Feb 14, Judge Wingate suspended all deadlines for Norton’s underlying request for declaratory relief pending the results of mediation. In its last public filing in Franklin Circuit Court on February 3, Norton requested up to 30 days to identify a mediator and at least another 90 days to complete the mediation process.

I called Franklin Circuit Court today to see what public information was available. In fact, the last document on file for the case (13-CI-1060) is that of February 20 related to the court-ordered mediation. There is not even a formal notice that a mediator had been appointed or approved. There have been no further hearings and none are scheduled for the future.

In my opinion, now is as good a time as any for some sort of public accountability from the parties. Are they in fact engaged? Are they making progress and needing of more time, or has the process broken down as some have feared? Did it ever really have a chance?

Peter Hasselbacher, MD
President, KHPI
Emeritus Professor of Medicine, UofL
June 11, 2014