OAK PARK, Ill. (WLS) — Attorneys for one of the owners of West Suburban Medical Center, the shuttered safety-net hospital now at the center of a contentious court fight, are seeking to step away from the case, citing “fundamental disagreements” with their client.
The move marks the latest turn in the legal and financial battle over the future of the Oak Park hospital.
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The ABC7 I-Team has been closely tracking the hospital’s closure, which affected hundreds of employees and thousands of patients who relied on the facility each year, including those unable to pay for care. Community leaders have warned that the sudden shutdown left the area facing what they described as a “medical desert.”
After the closure, hospital CEO Manoj Prasad and landowner Rathnaker Patlola filed lawsuits against one another, each alleging the other was responsible for the hospital’s deterioration and years of mismanagement following its December 2022 acquisition by their private company, Resilience Healthcare.
Those dueling lawsuits were later combined into one proceeding. In recent weeks, the owners had been involved in settlement talks that, if successful, could help shape a plan for the hospital to potentially reopen.
But court records show that on Monday, lawyers representing Resilience Healthcare moved to withdraw from the case. In their filing, they wrote that “circumstances have developed that have created fundamental disagreements between undersigned counsel and the Client regarding the representation and the Client’s objectives in this matter.”
The request comes after another unexpected development last week, when more than 500 furloughed employees of West Suburban Medical Center received notices stating their layoffs were “permanent.”
Sources familiar with the settlement discussions told the I-Team at the time that the notices were “a big deal” and said Prasad “had not consulted with anyone” involved in the ongoing court case before moving to permanently lay off the remaining furloughed workers. One source also said Cook County Circuit Court Judge Patrick Stanton, who is overseeing the matter, was surprised by the development and “upset” that it had not been disclosed during a court hearing earlier that same day.
Attorneys for both sides have been meeting behind closed doors weekly with Judge Stanton to negotiate a settlement which could include the hospital reopening under new ownership.
The I-Team has learned a settlement conference on Monday ended with nothing finalized, and another meeting with Judge Stanton has been scheduled for later in the week.
The video in the player above is from a previous report.
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