SEQUIM — A Utah company that owns a 500 W. Fir St. building is suing former renter Olympic Medical Center, claiming a breach of contract for dismantling part of the facility, allegedly to limit future competition.
The Clallam County Superior Court suit filed by Bonner Investments LLC alleges Olympic Medical Center, operated by Public Hospital District 2, illegally tore out expensive copper sheathing and removed costly, high-voltage power service when it vacated the medical imaging facility Dec. 31.
The hospital destroyed improvements “in the hundreds of thousands of dollars,” according to the lawsuit.
“OMC did this in order to give itself a monopoly on medical imaging services in the Sequim-Port Angeles area,” the lawsuit alleges, claiming the hospital violated the Consumer Protection Act and state constitution.
Removed assets
Hospital spokeswoman Rhonda Curry, in a statement Thursday, said Olympic Medical Center “removed only public assets belonging to the public hospital district” and that the hospital “fully restored the facility to immaculate condition suitable for use.”
Bonner Investments LLC, operated by Eric and Michelle Bonner of Springfield, Utah, filed the suit Feb. 24.
Lawyer Michael Spence of Seattle, representing the Bonners, said he expected the hospital to respond to the suit in court filings by Tuesday.
He said no court dates have been set.
Bonner Investments is seeking damages to be determined at trial.
Without permission
The imaging infrastructure was removed without his knowledge or permission, Eric Bonner said Thursday.
“I feel like I can’t let them get away with something so outrageous,” he said Thursday.
Spence said that when Jay and Rosalind Sorenson were having the building built in 2005, they added infrastructure for medical imaging at the request of Dr. Michael Fishman, the former tenant of the building, who operated Peninsula Medical Imaging.
The Sorensons later assigned their ownership interest to Bonner Investments.
In October 2009, Fishman assigned his interest in Peninsula Medical Imaging to OMC.
Medical imaging equipment was being removed by July 2010, according to Bonner’s lawsuit.
After OMC’s departure in December, “the space was no longer functional or marketable as a medical imaging space,” the lawsuit says.
OMC ‘confident’
The hospital is “confident these allegations will be proven as nonsense,” Curry said.
“Anyone can use this space as an imaging facility by paying for the equipment and fixtures needed to provide such services, as Olympic Medical Center did when leasing the facility.”
The hospital “looks forward to addressing Mr. Bonner’s allegations in court,” Curry said.
“As a public hospital district, Olympic Medical Center must preserve public assets, and public assets cannot be provided free to others for private use,” she said.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-417-3536 or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynes.com.
