ROCKY HILL ??
Moving felons into the nursing home at 60 West St. will cause "irreparable harm'' to the Town of Rocky Hill and its residents, attorneys said as they urged the State Appellate Court to fast-track their appeal of the dismissal of the town's lawsuit against the owners of the facility.
The appeal was filed Friday, three days after Superior Court Judge Antonio C. Robaina dismissed Rocky Hill's lawsuit against iCare Management LLC and SecureCare Realty LLC, short-circuiting the town's effort to obtain an injunction against opening the 95-bed skilled nursing facility for prisoners and mental patients.
Robaina ruled that because the nursing home will operate as an arm of the state, the owner and operator enjoy sovereign immunity and can't be sued.
"An injunction against the defendant would clearly impede a governmental function,'' Robaina concluded.
The ruling represented a major setback but did not end the legal war the town has been waging since December, when plans for the state-backed facility were announced.
"The opening and operating of a facility, around residential houses, for convicted felons who are presently serving lengthy sentences is an issue of public interest. Delay in having this appeal addressed would work a substantial injustice,'' stated the eight-page document seeking expedited appeal. It was brought by Town Attorney Morris R. Borea and Proloy K. Das, his associate at the Hartford firm of Rome McGuigan PC.
"We are talking fundamental, bedrock issues,'' Borea said. "We're going to ask the court to decide faster than it usually does."
Borea received authorization Wednesday to appeal Robaina's ruling. He and Das met privately with council members for an hour Friday to discuss what legal options the town could pursue. No other actions were announced.
As of March 31, the town had spent $91,974.84 for legal services to fight the opening of the nursing home.
"There is going to be a point in time where we will have to make a decision that enough is enough,'' conceded Mayor Timothy Moriarty, after meeting with the attorneys. But that point has not been reached. "We haven't had our day in court yet."
Council member Philip J. Sylvestro said he wanted to see the issue pushed "until legal counsel says this is it ? we can't take it any further.
"We're not done yet," he said.
The nursing facility, the first of its kind in Connecticut, is being pushed by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's administration as a means to reduce long-term care costs for chronically and terminally ill inmates and mental patients under state control.
In its appeal, the town argued that Robaina wrongly concluded that the owner and operator of the facility were an "arm of the state," and therefore entitled to sovereign immunity without allowing any pre-trial discovery or evidentiary hearing to establish the claim.
Also, the town argues that the judge violated the town's state constitutional rights under the Home Rule Amendment to control placement of a prison nursing home in a residential neighborhood.
It also says the judge erred by allowing a private company to bypass local zoning regulations by signing a state contract.
Robaina had dismissed that argument, noting "the state's ability to establish a nursing home preempts and surpasses the plaintiff's authority to zone local land use."
The state had planned to begin moving patients into the nursing home in February or March.
That timetable has been delayed by State Department of Public Health relicensing and of completion of various building improvements.
One hurdle was cleared April 8, when the facility was issued a food service license that allows it to prepare meals, said Ed Malik, local sanitarian for the Central Connecticut Health District.
Located in the middle of a residential neighborhood, the nursing home had operated from 1967 until 2011, when it was closed by court order.
The property was purchased in November for $1.9 million by SecureCare Realty, a subsidiary of iCare Management, which had been selected by a trio of state agencies to run a skilled care facility. A contract with iCare Management's operating subsidiary, SecureCare Options LLC, was finalized Jan. 30, 2013.
The state expects that by moving patients into a private facility, it can claim $5.5 million a year in federal Medicaid reimbursement.
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