Bank begins new suit over Herington Hospital’s assets
Staff writer
Emprise Bank has filed a second suit against companies that might have an interest in property owned by Herington Hospital and its clinics in Hillsboro and Junction City.
Those properties were awarded to the bank in its initial suit. A hearing in the original suit is set for Feb. 27.
That hearing is to give hospital board members a chance to fight decisions previously made.
The first suit, a mortgage foreclosure filed Oct. 9, targeted six companies including the hospital and its parent company, Amberwell Atchison Association.
The suit moved through the courts quickly. Judge Courtney Boehm approved the mortgage foreclosure Dec. 4 and granted possession of all hospital property to the Bank.
A sheriff’s sale scheduled for Jan. 25 was canceled by the bank’s lawyer the morning the sale was to be conducted.
The bank’s lawyer, Karl Swartz, did not return a call asking why the sale had been canceled.
The bank’s chairman of the board filed a motion Feb. 8 asking the court to reconsider its decision giving all the hospital’s property to the bank.
Chairman Robert Danzman wrote that for months the hospital had operated under “suspicious circumstances and conditions.”
He contends this led to the bank sweeping money out of the hospital’s bank accounts before filing suit against the hospital.
Danzman claims the hospital has been under investigation by the Kansas attorney general’s office since May 2020.
He refers to suits filed against the hospital’s former chief executive and chief financial officer.
“The scope of the various investigations and lawsuits, court actions, apparently encompass corruption, billing fraud, embezzlement, misfeasance, malfeasance, about of authority, about of power, and abuse of fiduciary responsibilities,” Danzman wrote.
Swartz filed an answer to Danzman’s motion Feb. 8. In it, he asks that asking that the judgment in favor of the bank be upheld and that any claims by new defendants be eliminated.
Defendants in the new case, filed Feb. 9, include Americorp Financial, Canon Medical Systems USA, Century Business Systems, De Lage Landen Public Finance, First Financial Holdings doing business as First Financial Healthcare, G L Real Estate Ventures, Landmark National Bank, Mitsubishi HC Capital America doing business as Vendor Services Group, Ortho-Clinical Diagnostics, and U.S. Bank National Association.
The bank seeks that its own security interest in the former hospital’s assets be found superior to the claims of any of the defendants.