Hospital filing accuses its former lawyer of blind-copying negotiation opponent on confidential docs
A federal court filing by a hospital litigating a failed management agreement with another medical facility says its former lawyer was secretly communicating with the opposing party during negotiations of that management agreement.
The blind copies of confidential documents allegedly sent to Erlanger Health System by partner Ward Nelson of Miller & Martin came to light during discovery by Hutcheson Medical Center in the current case, the filing says. At the center of the dispute is a $20 million credit line that Erlanger extended to Hutcheson, reports the Chattanooga Times Free Press.
Each side now says it got the worst of the management-agreement bargain and Hutcheson says Nelson encouraged the hospital to “overcollaterize” in exchange for the $20 million.
The chief administrative officer of Erlanger told the newspaper it would be premature to comment on allegations that his company has not yet had a chance to review. Miller & Martin’s general counsel, Billy Eiselstein, said the law firm and Ward had done nothing wrong.
“We stand by the work that our attorneys did for Hutcheson Medical Center,” Eiselstein said. “When Hutcheson now complains that we shared information with Erlanger, it relies on emails that also included the counties, which we did not represent, and those emails were not privileged.”
An earlier article on the newspaper website Catwalkchatt.com provides more details about the litigation between the hospitals, which is being pursued in the Northern District of Georgia in Rome.
