From the Charlotte Observer (7/16/13): A Charlotte attorney contends in a lawsuit that one of the nation’s largest public hospital chains, Carolinas HealthCare System, has violated the state public records law by keeping secret the terms of a legal settlement.
Carolinas HealthCare, the multibillion-dollar system that runs Carolinas Medical Center and more than 30 other hospitals, won a confidential settlement in a court complaint that it filed against the former Wachovia Bank.
The new suit by attorney Gary Jackson maintains that Carolinas HealthCare has no legal right to keep the settlement confidential – an argument that the hospital system disputes.
In a hearing this week before Superior Court Judge Robert Sumner, the two sides wrangled over the hospital chain’s motion to dismiss the suit – and over interpretations of the state’s sometimes-ambiguous public records law.