St. Louis Team Secures Victory for Client Mercy

A BCLP St. Louis team secured a swift victory for client Mercy – one of the largest Catholic health systems in the United States – regarding its efforts to provide important COVID-19 services to the St. Louis community, which is expected to see a peak in COVID-19 cases in the next two weeks. 

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Mercy is operating a dedicated care center to assess and triage patients suffering from respiratory illnesses in an underground garage at a Mercy-owned building in St. Louis County. In addition to the Mercy Center performing COVID-19 assessments, it also serves the purpose of better isolating and segregating infected and non-infected patients, and diminishes the burden on area hospitals and medical facilities. 

A tenant in the building filed a lawsuit in St. Louis County Circuit Court on April 8 asking the court to enter a temporary restraining order (TRO) precluding Mercy from continuing to operate and provide the COVID-19 services in its underground garage-based center. The plaintiff alleged that the center is causing its business immediate irreparable harm by exposing its doctor, employees and patients to COVID-19.

The BCLP team worked around the clock to gather evidence, draft responsive pleadings and prepare witnesses. After a three-hour hearing on April 15 (conducted remotely via Zoom), the BCLP team successfully defeated the motion for TRO, thus permitting Mercy to continue its critical efforts to combat and treat the spread of COVID-19. The BCLP team included Senior Trial Counsel Ben Clark, Partner David Roodman and Associate Jason Meyer.