LAWRENCE COUNTY Officials file suit to recover money

The lawsuit contends there was a breach of contract.
By LAURE CIOFFI
VINDICATOR NEW CASTLE BUREAU
NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- Lawrence County has filed a lawsuit to recoup some of the money missing from the county-owned nursing home.
Named in the suit filed Friday in Lawrence County Common Pleas Court are Sylvan Heights Realty Partners LLC, Americare Management Corp., Pennsylvania Corp., George Howley and John Hadgkiss.
The lawsuit contends that money was taken from the home's patient fund account and put into a Sylvan Heights Realty Partners Account. All but about $142,000 was returned to the county, the suit contends.
Hadgkiss, when reached Friday afternoon, referred calls to his attorney, Robert Krebs. Krebs could not be reached.
Howley could not be reached Friday.
Howley and Hadgkiss and some unnamed partners make up Sylvan Heights Partners LLC. That group first contacted the county in October 2002 about buying Hill View Manor and nearby land and started negotiations later that year.
County officials subsequently put Americare, a company owned by Hadgkiss, in charge of managing the facility while negotiations were under way.
What lawsuit contends
The lawsuit contends that in late January or early February 2003, the resident/patient fund clerk at Hill View was instructed by Howley or Americare not to write private pay or maintenance checks to the county until further notice.
The clerk was later instructed to put that money in a Sylvan account, according to the lawsuit. Eventually it totaled $592,329.81, court papers said.
About $450,000 was transferred back to county accounts in October by county Controller Mary Ann Reiter.
"Sylvan Heights/Howley/Americare, in direct violation of the county's disbursement procedure, paid from the Sylvan operating account, expenses totaling $150,710.03, which disbursements were made without approval of the county and a direct violation of the county disbursement policy," the lawsuit said.
The county contends in its lawsuit that there was a breach of agreement and contract by the buyers.
County commissioners stopped the nursing home sale late last summer after learning about the money transfers. The fate of the home is now unclear. Two county commissioners proposed this week to start the procedure to close the facility, contending it is too costly to operate.