SUNY-Downstate fights Long Island College Hospital ruling

The State University of New York-Downstate, the current operator of Long Island College Hospital in Cobble Hill, is fighting a state court order allowing community groups and New York City Public Advocate Bill de Blasio to aid in selecting a new operator for the troubled hospital.

SUNY Downstate, following the ruling, filed an appeal requesting a stay on the appointment of any operator or other disruption of LICH’s assets. Brooklyn Supreme Court Judge Carolyn Demarest, who granted a petition allowing LICH to transfer its assets to SUNY Downstate in 2011, revisited her decision earlier this year once SUNY announced plans to close the hospital.

Judge Demarest ordered LICH to transfer all assets back to the hospital, and demanded a new operator either be assigned or appointed. Concerned Physicians of LICH, New York State Nurses Association and Local 1199SEIU, representing the hospital’s non-medical employees, have also joined the fight, asking the court for permission to be part of the search for a new operator.

SUNY, in turn, filed the appeal to stop the process, and also asked that Judge Demarest be barred from issuing further orders.

“There is simply no constitutional, statutory, common or administrative law that empowers a court to ‘revoke’ a 27-month-old order,” SUNY said in court papers, cited by the Brooklyn Eagle. [Brooklyn Eagle] — Julie Strickland