Attorney argues suit brought by methadone clinic provider should be dismissed
An attorney for Fayette County and its zoning hearing board filed court paperwork Wednesday asking a judge to dismiss a suit from a medical company that wants to run a methadone clinic in Perry Township because the company waited too long to file the suit.
Marie Milie Jones, in papers filed in Western District Court in Pittsburgh, argued that Polaris Renewal Services Inc., a Washington County company, had two years from Nov. 30, 2009, to sue. That was the date that the board denied a special exception for the methadone clinic on Pittsburgh Road.
Polaris sued in March, alleging that delays in approving the clinic made the company unable to apply to be a behavioral health-care provider with Fayette County. Being a provider under the county’s managed-care program means the clinic would be able to accept people who get medical assistance.
Jones, however, said that allegation is irrelevant because that “is not the discriminatory act of which Polaris complains.”
The company alleged that the county violated the federal Rehabilitation Act and Americans with Disabilities Act by not approving the clinic sooner.
Polaris leases the land from LLS Realty, the company that sued the county in 2010, making the same essential claims, Jones alleged. The county ultimately settled with LLS later that year, and as part of that agreed to the let LLS move forward with plans for the clinic.
“The factual basis for the claims asserted in both the current litigation and the suit filed by LLS are essentially identical,” Jones wrote. “The claims being pursued are entirely based on the adoption/enforcement of the ordinance of the zoning board’s refusal to permit the subject premises to be utilized as a facility providing methadone maintenance treatment.”
A judge will rule on the request at a later date.