The owner of a troubled New Jersey nursing home has been ordered to pay a public relations firm $105,000 after failing to respond to a lawsuit brought by the company for allegedly not paying for services.
Sussex County Superior Court Judge William McGovern III handed down the ruling against Alliance Healthcare Holdings of Lakewood, which owns and operates Woodland Behavioral and Nursing Center, the New Jersey Herald reported Wednesday.
Woodland, a 543-bed skilled nursing facility in Andover, NJ, formerly known as Andover Rehabilitation and Subacute Care I and II, gained unwelcome attention in April 2020, when health officials removed 17 corpses from a mortuary building outside of the building.
McKnight’s Long-Term Care News made several unsuccessful attempts to reach Alliance Healthcare Holdings of Lakewood for comment on the May ruling. An employee at Woodland said they were unable to give out any contact information for Alliance when asked by McKnight’s. Alliance has been represented by Lowenstein Sandler LLP in previous litigation but it is not representing the company in this case.
The $105,000 judgment was ruled in favor of Delaware-based firm Mercury Public Affairs, which was contracted to work with Alliance in mid-April 2020 to provide crisis, reputation management and strategic media relations following body removals. The firm was to be paid $35,000 per month through December, according to the report.
Mercury in court documents argued it was owed $275,000 for its services and that Alliance had paid only a portion of that, leaving $105,000 in the balance. The court granted the default judgment after not hearing from Alliance regarding the lawsuit.
“Despite repeated requests, (Alliance) failed and/or refused to satisfy the remaining outstanding balance due,” Mercury wrote in court documents.
