An attorney charged with the recovery and distribution of assets in the bankruptcy of the failed for-profit venture of the former Brownsville Hospital has filed lawsuits to try and recover assets incorrectly distributed before the hospital closed in January 2006.

Included among the creditors who did not receive payments are the hospital's 260 former employees, who were owed nearly $1 million when the hospital abruptly shut its doors.

Attorney Robert S. Bernstein, the bankruptcy plan administrator in the case, said he was trying to secure a fair distribution of assets by recovering money that was distributed to some creditors as the hospital was ready to close. A group of doctors opened the former Brownsville Hospital as a for-profit operation under the name of Tara Hospital for a few months before it ceased operations.

The lawsuits filed by Mr. Bernstein seek to recover $979,915 from 29 creditors. If the recovery is successful, that money would be redistributed to all the creditors, including the employees and those who received the initial distribution.