The negotiations to reopen Oak Park’s West Suburban Medical Center drag on in a Cook County courtroom as the judge on the case grows increasingly frustrated with both sides of the dispute.
The legal battle between the hospital’s two owners began when they both sued each other back in April. West Suburban’s CEO Manoj Prasad and the hospital’s landlord Rathnakar Reddy Patlola turned foes when Prasad abruptly shut down the Oak Park hospital in March. Patlola filed a lawsuit to wrestle control of the hospital from Prasad. That case is currently before Cook County Circuit Judge Patrick Stanton.
After over two months of public hearings and closed-door meetings, Stanton appeared fed up with the case during a Tuesday hearing.
“Let’s see if the parties here can come to an agreement,” he said to the lawyers representing Prasad and Patlola. One of Prasad’s previous lawyers, Martin Tasch, withdrew last week. Howard Brookins, a former Chicago alderman, is now representing Prasad.
“You’ve stepped onto a moving train,” Stanton told Brookins Tuesday.
Lawyers for Patlola filed a motion Friday to press Prasad’s legal team to accept a settlement agreement that was apparently finalized in late May. The motion, which offers few details of that settlement, accuses Prasad of delaying the process.
The hospital’s condition is “actively deteriorating with West Suburban Medical Center being subject to occupancy restrictions from the Village of Oak Park and ComEd threatening to shut off electricity,” the motion reads. ” … [T]here is a legitimate threat that the subject Hospitals will never reopen and the hospital properties fall into a state of disrepair, which will result in irreparable harm to [Patlola].”
The motion does say the settlement agreement would involve a third-party taking control of the hospital away from Prasad.
In court on Tuesday, Brookins said he is still getting up to speed on the case and did not have a response to the motion. He also has yet to read through the settlement agreement his predecessor was working on with Patlola’s lawyers.
The lawyers will appear again before Stanton on Friday during a private settlement conference.
Meanwhile, West Suburban and its sister institution Weiss Memorial Hospital could lose power Wednesday due to unpaid electric bills. Stanton declined to intervene on the issue Tuesday.