In the summer of 1994, Dr. Soon K. Kim recruited five people to sit on the board of the nonprofit corporation he created to oversee the Greater Detroit Hospital. They served until the fall of 1997, when Kim fired the hospital’s chief operating officer, Linda Carroll. The board supported Carroll, and claimed Kim had no authority to fire her. The board sued, claiming the action was illegal. As the case dragged on, funds for legal fees ran dry and the hospital slid toward closure, so there was never a resolution. Two board members, Walter Schuller and the Rev. Charles Branch, have since died. The remaining board members, Viola Branch, Timmiah Ramesh and Mahendra Kanthi refused to comment for this story. An entirely new board was eventually installed; Kim’s lawyer told the replacement board, “It would appear that the purported [original] board never were actually appointed.”
Read this week's feature on Dr. Kim.
Check out Dr. Kim and his associates' web of nonprofit and for-profit companies.
Curt Guyette is the Metro Times news editor. E-mail [email protected]
