With LICH deal ‘close,’ Brooklyn judge gives bidders one more day
Hospital set to close Thursday
Saying that “substantial progress” was being made, on Tuesday parties vying for Brooklyn’s Long Island College Hospital (LICH) agreed with SUNY’s motion to ask state Supreme Court Justice Johnny Lee Baynes for one more day to negotiate a deal before resuming litigation.
With LICH scheduled to close on Thursday and lives from Red Hook to Williamsburg in the balance, attorneys are hoping to reach an agreement that will maintain medical and emergency care at the hospital without a break in service.
A number of motions and counter motions are in play in the LICH case, but two in particular are affected by Tuesday’s halt in litigation: Community groups and doctors agreed to delay filing a motion to eliminate six scores in SUNY’s RFP voting process that appear to fall outside of settlement guidelines; and developer Fortis Development Group, the third-place finisher in the RFP vote, agreed to put off filing for an order to intervene in this motion.
Frank Carone (Abrams, Fensterman, Fensterman), representing SUNY, told Justice Baynes that the parties needed 24 hours “to see if there is a mechanism to [both] resolve the motion and satisfy the RFP.”