Local practice obtains temporary restraining order, citing looming eviction
Robbinsville – Smoky Mountain Urgent Care – which operates a county-owned urgent care clinic in Robbinsville and is facing eviction – has filed a restraining order against Graham County and is suing the county for breach of contract.
Physician and Smoky Mountain Urgent Care President Dr. David Castor said that the county sent him a notice on Nov. 23 that it would be terminating contracts with the clinic for primary imaging and care of inmates in the Graham County Jail, as well as the lease on the clinic building. He said the lease was meant to last 10 years, with the clinic currently being in year three.
The notice on Nov. 23 gave the clinic 90 days to vacate.
“… This letter is your notice that you are, and have been for some time now, in breach of the above described contracts,” said a letter from county attorney J.K. Coward, Jr.
The contracts were a Health Services Agreement, Equipment Lease Agreement and Lease Agreement.
Coward wrote that the clinic failed to attend adequately to operate the facility for the required hours, “other conditions and stipulations” of the lease agreement, and “to charge reasonable and customary amounts for the use of the equipment” required in the lease agreement.
“Please vacate the premises in good condition on or about the effective date,” Coward wrote.
The letter was dated Nov. 23, 2021, so the clinic was expected to be vacant by around Feb. 23.
Castor said his clinic had been forced to reduce hours when COVID-19 struck his staff – but otherwise, it has been operating as agreed. The county also claims the clinic was not paying its fair share on the imaging equipment.
Castor contends that the clinic had been making such payments on time.
“We’re not vacating,” he said.
“We’re open seven days a week from 9 a.m. – 6 p.m. on weekdays and 9 a.m. – 2 p.m. on weekends,” Castor said in an earlier interview with The Graham Star. “I’m not sure why that’s not good enough.”
County commissioners met in closed session this week to advise Coward how to proceed. The county and its insurance company – RLI Insurance Company – now face their own deadline: they have until Saturday to answer the lawsuit associated with the restraining order.
The clinic operates a rural medical practice in Robbinsville, providing care and treatment for citizens of Graham County and surrounding areas, including immediate care and treatment for acutely ill patients and is the only practice in Graham County to provide such care.
It has been approved to participate as a “Rural Health Clinic” in Graham County by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, a division of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. The lease agreement provides for a term of 10 years, with it having three options to renew for terms of five years each.
In the lawsuit, the clinic alleges that the county is attempting to terminate the lease of the real property relying upon the terms of a completely separate agreement between the parties, being a health services agreement.
The lawsuit claims that the county’s breach of the lease agreement and the “unlawful removal” of the clinic from the premises – as threatened in the Nov. 23 letter – will cause and result in immediate and irreparable harm, including significant lost revenue, lost jobs, lost use of equipment, and an ability to fulfill its legal and continuing obligations “to provide its patients with appropriate notice prior to closing a practice which protects the patients’ welfare, autonomy, and continuity of care.”
In addition to the temporary restraining order, the lawsuit seeks to stop the eviction and award damages.
It also seeks a trial by jury.