The hospital that housed Huguette Clark for the last 20 years of her life — and collected $13 million in fees and gifts from the frail heiress — says she would have died a lot sooner if it weren’t for its staff.
Fending off allegations that Clark’s caregivers extended her stay so they could soak her for millions, the late recluse’s longtime nurse argued that Beth Israel Hospital “took superb care of [Clark], expanding her longevity.
“She wanted to stay at Beth Israel because she loved her doctors and wanted them to be at her beck and call for the rest of her life,” private-duty nurse Hadassah Peri maintained in Manhattan Surrogate’s Court papers.
But a lawyer for the Manhattan public administrator backed charges from Clark’s relatives that Beth Israel was out for a chunk of Clark’s $400 million estate.
“We do not think Beth Israel acted appropriately here,” Peter Schram said at a court hearing Friday.
Clark went to the hospital in 1991, stayed at her own insistence and even fired a nurse who repeatedly questioned her refusal to return to her lavish Fifth Avenue apartment, court papers show. Clark died in 2011 at the age of 104.
Her relatives and the public administrator say Clark was ill equipped to make her final will, which they want overturned.
The will leaves nothing to Clark’s family but gives $34 million and a priceless doll collection to Peri, $1 million to Beth Israel and $500,000 each to lawyer Wallace Bock and accountant Irving Kamsler, both of whom are under investigation.
The Paris-born Clark inherited her money from her father, William, a former US senator whose wealth rivaled the Rockefellers.