North Shore asks 2nd time to strike language in Columbine motions

LOVELAND — For the second time, North Shore Manor Inc. has asked the district court to strike portions of motions filed on behalf of Columbine Health-related entities.

This time, North Shore also asked the judge to admonish Columbine’s attorney, John O’Brien, “for a clear violation of C.R.C.P. 11,” the Colorado statute regulating behavior of attorneys in court actions.

North Shore and Columbine Health are locked in a months-long conflict over control of North Shore Manor, a nursing home and rehabilitation facility at 1369 W. 29th St. in Loveland. First in bankruptcy court and then, after dismissal of the bankruptcy, in district court, the parties have sparred over what North Shore called intentional and deliberate acts of self-dealing, theft and deception by J. Robert Wilson … and his related entities.”

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However, Wilson and Columbine claim that North Shore’s majority owners breached the management agreement between them and that they attempted to extort money from Wilson. 

Wilson filed an action on behalf of multiple vendors that operate under the Columbine umbrella of companies claiming that North Shore owed money for unpaid products and services supplied by the vendors. North Shore has attempted to combine the vendor lawsuit with the one that it filed.

In the vendor lawsuit, attorney O’Brien made the claim that a state ombudsman determined that a patient died because the nursing home failed to replace a floor mattress next to the patient’s bed.

North Shore objected. “Despite the seemingly straight-forward nature of their claims, plaintiffs felt it necessary to add spice to the complaint by way of an irrelevant, salacious and patently untrue allegation effectively accusing North Shore of homicide.”

North Shore said that the ombudsman made no such claim but rather reported that the patient died and what the patient’s family reported to the state.

“No ombudsman, person or entity ever determined that the resident died because of the fall or because of North Shore’s conduct,” North Shore’s motion read.

North Shore also related its previous motion to strike language that O’Brien used in its response to the original lawsuit when Columbine alleged that the bankruptcy judge admonished North Shore for extortion. North Shore said that the bankruptcy court records show no language of that sort from the judge. 

“The game that Mr. Wilson is playing, aided and abetted by his lawyer John O’Brien, is to allege scandalous, false statements for the media, in an attempt to sully North Shore’s reputation so as to erode the public’s trust in North Shore… Indeed, the death of a resident has nothing to do with an otherwise ‘collections’ case by the plaintiffs.”

A message sent to Columbine’s public relations firm asking for a response was not acknowledged prior to time of publication.

The cases are:

Centre Elderly Transportation Inc., et al, versus North Shore Manor Inc., case number 2024cv30100 filed in Larimer County District Court on Feb. 5, 2024.

The case is North Shore Manor Inc. v. J. Robert Wilson, Columbine Management Services Inc. Wapello Holdings LLC and John Does I-X, case number 2023cv30883, filed Oct. 27, 2023, in Larimer County District Court.