Conservatorship battle over Life Care owner set for Wednesday
CLEVELAND, Tenn. (WDEF)- A significant legal battle is looming on Wednesday in Cleveland involving America’s largest private nursing home company.
The future of Life Care Centers of America, headquartered in Cleveland, will be determined in an emergency petition hearing here in Bradley County on Wednesday.
The dispute is over who should be handling important documents for Forrest Preston, the company’s founder and owner. The dispute is between his wife and his son.
Gary Patrick represents Aubrey Preston, the son of the man who has built Life Care Centers.
Although Aubrey has since moved on to running his own medical company, Patrick says circumstances have caused him to ask a Bradley County judge to gain conservatorship over his father’s affairs.
Patrick said, “He would have preferred not to have done this… Mr. Preston discovered what was happening with his father and also Life Care through conversations he had with executives at Life Care.”
The accusations center around Forrest Preston’s wife of five years, Kim Phong Ngyuen.
Nguyen is being accused by Preston of taking advantage of his father, who is 91 and is in declining health.
Aubrey Preston says that she managed to arrange a marriage secretly while he was hospitalized, and now is significantly involved in the day to day operations of Life Care Center.
This, says Patrick, is causing disruptions at the company and places it into a dangerous financial situation, necessitating that his son gain control over Preston’s financial documents.
Patrick said, “Without someone that has the authority to sign documents such as loan documents, and just regular documents, if no one was here to sign the documents it could severely affect Life Care.”
They also believe that it is urgent to get this emergency because they say that Ngyuen is a flight risk, and mention threatening statements towards Life Care executives.
Patrick said, “She has told people that she has a gun and won’t be hesitant to use it to protect herself or Forrest.”
We attempted to reach out to the attorney of Ngyuen, who has filed a court order to close the hearing Wednesday to the public.
We have not heard back from them.
Life Care has previously sent News 12 a statement saying the case will not impact their operations, something Patrick and Aubrey Preston say they agree with.
Patrick said, “Both the President of Life Care and the Chief Financial Officer of Life Care believe that Aubrey need to be appointed as the Conservator, along with other executives at Life Care.”
The case will be heard at the Bradley County Courthouse on Wednesday.
News 12 will be there to give you the latest updates.
