Humble Surgical withdraws motion; Aetna requests trustee appointment

By Caroline Salls

Pittsburgh, March 3 – Humble Surgical Hospital, LLC withdrew a motion asking the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas to order Aetna Life Insurance Co. to release $545,000 in garnishments that Humble said has left it with no funds with which to operate, according to a notice filed Thursday.

The company said the motion was now moot because a ruling made in a related lawsuit.

Shortly before its bankruptcy filing, Humble said Aetna obtained a judgment against it in the amount of $51 million in litigation pending in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas.

On Feb. 27, the district court entered orders terminating the stay to allow Aetna to collect its judgment.

Also on Thursday, Aetna again asked the district court to allow it to address all matters related to the judgment order, including a motion by Humble to hold Aetna in contempt of court in connection with the garnishment, to authorize Aetna to file causes of action in the district court against Humble’s current and former management, owners affiliates and recipients of transfers from Humble and to order the U.S. Trustee overseeing Humble’s bankruptcy case to appoint a Chapter 11 trustee.

Aetna said the Chapter 11 trustee would “replace and supplant debtors’ current board, management and advisers.”

According to the motion, the relationship between Aetna, Humble’s largest creditor, and Humble chief restructuring officer Jeffrey M. Anapolsky “is acrimonious at best.”

Aetna said Anapolsky, at the direction of Humble’s current board and management, filed the bankruptcy case “solely to disrupt Aetna’s efforts to execute its judgment, and submitted a declaration in support of the bankruptcy filings that contains numerous misrepresentations and misstatements.”

“All other Humble bankruptcy matters should (for the moment, at least) remain with the bankruptcy court,” Aetna said in its motion.

The district court withdrew the references to the bankruptcy court in connection with Aetna’s motion in an order filed Thursday.

The Humble, Texas-based hospital provides specialized surgical and ancillary services. The company filed bankruptcy on Feb. 24 under Chapter 11 case number 17-31078.

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