A lawyer for Hutcheson Medical Center says he has nothing left to share – no documents to look for, no documents to hide, nothing at all.
But a lawyer for Erlanger Health System says that’s not true. It just can’t be.
Jennifer Shelfer, the attorney for Erlanger, filed a motion in U.S. District Court on Thursday, arguing that Hutcheson has not given her enough important documents in the discovery process for the pending lawsuit between the two hospitals.
She asked Judge Harold Murphy to force Hutcheson to turn over more paperwork and explain everything it has done to try to find all pertinent documents. She also asked for Hutcheson to pay for some of Erlanger’s attorney fees, saying she and the rest of her team have had to spend hours trying to force Hutcheson to turn over information it should have supplied a year ago.
Erlanger and Hutcheson are tangled in two federal lawsuits because a marriage between the hospitals ended in an ugly divorce 2 1/2 years ago. Erlanger loaned Hutcheson $20 million and has been demanding that money back. Hutcheson officials, meanwhile, said Erlanger’s leaders always had sinister intentions with their management agreement, attempting behind the scenes to steal Hutcheson’s patients.