Case Studies
- Helping lenders serve a growing industry: environmental services
- Outsourcing legal remedies: Lear Corporation depends on Bodman
- Retaining a critical asset: Detroit Medical Center fights to keep the Karmanos Cancer Institute
- Relieving debt for a Korean War veteran
- Advancing the development of an artificial lung
- Setting a new precedent with an innovative labor agreement
- Marrying an auto-industry pioneer to a Japanese suitor
Retaining a critical asset: Detroit Medical Center fights to keep the Karmanos Cancer Institute
In today’s competitive health care environment, cutting-edge facilities and medical talent are vital to the financial well-being of health care systems. So, when the Karmanos Cancer Institute announced its plan to leave the DMC campus, the DMC quickly called Bodman. If the institute’s move was not stopped, the DMC would face lost revenue in the millions of dollars.
Bodman litigators Bob Brower and Dennis Levasseur teamed with DMC Deputy General Counsel Chuck Raimi. They argued in Wayne County Circuit Court that relocation by Karmanos would breach a contract that required the institute to remain on the DMC campus. Under the contract, the DMC had transferred its cancer-hospital assets to Karmanos for a fraction of fair market value to allow the institute to run itself as a financially freestanding entity.
The arguments were strong and effective. Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Gershwin Drain told a packed courtroom that the contract was valid. The Karmanos Cancer Institute had to stay. It was a complete victory for the DMC: Karmanos must run a full-service cancer hospital on the DMC main campus until the parties mutually agree otherwise.