Huguette Clark estate appeals ruling on Beth Israel lawsuit

The estate of late heiress Huguette Clark is appealing a court ruling that let Beth Israel Medical Center escape a $95 million lawsuit that alleged the hospital unscrupulously bilked Clark out of millions of dollars.

A Manhattan judge ruled last month that the statute of limitations had run out on the estate’s claims against Beth Israel, where copper heiress Clark – who had an enviable collection of Manhattan real estate – lived for the last 20 years of her life. Clark, a recluse later in life, died in 2011 at the age of 104.

But the estate is now appealing that decision, telling Manhattan Surrogate Court that the judge erred on the law, according to the New York Post.

The $95 million lawsuit claimed “rampant financial exploitation” by Beth Israel executives, who allegedly charged Clark hundreds of thousands of dollars a year for unnecessary care. The suit sought the repayment of the heiress’ hospital fees and another $50 million in damages.

The eccentric Clark’s Manhattan real estate portfolio has been sold off for tens of millions in the years since her death. Hedge funder Boaz Weinstein bought a 12th-floor co-op at 907 Fifth Avenue for $25.5 million in 2012, while financier Frederick Iseman closed on an eighth-floor spread in the building for $22.5 million that year. Another of Clark’s units in the building sold for $6.8 million in 2013. [NYP] – Rey Mashayekhi