BAYONNE —A suit filed against the trustees, officers and accounting firm for the former Bayonne Medical Center was settled in Federal Bankruptcy Court on Aug. 24 for about $10.1 million, according to one of the former hospital trustees as well as an attorney representing one of the plaintiffs.
According to these sources, a portion of the settlement could be paid to the current owners, who took over the hospital three years ago.
The suit was filed in 2009 by unsecured creditors, to collect money they lost when the Bayonne Medical Center went bankrupt.
The suit, which was filed by Allen J. Wilen in his capacity as liquidating trustee and estate representative for the bankrupt estate of the former Bayonne Medical Center, targets Omni Healthcare – which is constructing a new senior care facility adjacent to the existing hospital – and other entities, as part of a complicated legal action in which more than 70 unpaid companies are seeking to collect as much as $50 million in bills left unpaid as a result of the bankruptcy and eventual sale of the medical center.
IJKG of Iselin purchased the hospital in February 2008 to run as a private hospital. The company is not involved in the legal dispute, but could benefit from a portion of the $10.1 million settlement the court approved this week.