The Manhattan hospital that kept an elderly heiress in a private room for nearly 20 years for no medical reason — while reaping millions of dollars from her — doesn’t owe her estate a dime thanks to a legal loophole.
Beth Israel Medical Center was facing a $95 million lawsuit from an attorney managing the estate of eccentric copper heiress Huguette Clark, who lived with her childhood dolls in her hospital room for years until she died at 104 in 2011.
Hospital executives charged the widow hundreds of thousands of dollars a year for care that was unnecessary — and bilked millions of dollars more from her with smarmy fake friendships, according to a 2013 suit by the estate administrator.
The hospital should have to pay it back and be penalized another $50 million for its actions, the plaintiffs said.
While Clark’s 19 relatives are not a party to the case, they were set to reap millions if the judge decided against the hospital.
But the statute of limitations ran out on the alleged crimes, Manhattan Surrogate Court Justice Nora Anderson said in her ruling released last week.
“We are hopeful that Beth Israel Medical Center . . . will ultimately answer for its prolonged and rampant financial exploitation of Huguette Clark,” her great-grandnephew, Ian Clark Devine said.