"Reprehensible, But Not Illegal"


was Not-Stempler's answer to my latest inquiry.

Most of you know Not-Stempler is GA's legal department.   And I frequently pester him with questions because in a city like Hoboken where officials make up their own rules, even bloggers need the advice of counsel.

True.

So what was the question?

Whether HoldCo, the new owner of the HUMC, had any legal recourse with regard to false claims of free services at the HUMC made by Beth Mason's  ad currently airing on a cable station near you.

GA hasn't seen the commercial, but multiple reports have come in describing Mason's boast about "saving" the  hospital and obtaining non-existent give-backs.

So I asked Not-Stempler what the hospital's new owner could do; could HoldCo sue Mason? Or order her to cease-and-desist?  After all, she placed them  on the hook to administer free services to "poor" women and Alzheimers patients in her cable advertising blitzkrieg.

Not- Stempler responded with a vigorous "NO" adding her false claims were "reprehensible but not illegal." 

Wow. 

Reprehensible is right, my $850/hr legal titan.

Mason is preying upon a most vulnerable population of poor, sick women and seniors with Alheizmers by giving them false hopes of free health care. 

What happens when these people show up at the HUMC for their 'free' services?   Does Mason care?

Obviously not.

Creating chaos is a side affect of her pathology, an observation made by a reader with a similarly-ill family member:

It is a ironclad ability to simply be self absorbed coupled with the need to stamp out any opposition which aims to defeat them that can be truly epic in the damage that is wrought. 
Why does her (presumably healthy) spouse and campaign treasurer, Ricky Mason. partner at Wachtell, Likption, Rosen & Katz,  continue to endorse her reckless, hurtful self-indulgence with his checkbook?

Does anybody know?

Anyway, a friend texted me this:
holdco needs to formally correct the misinformation. holdco needs to run an ad of their own. as it stands people have wrong expectations that the hospital will have to correct.
Maybe.  Maybe not.

To counter it is to dignify it.   At the same time, putting out a counter-ad may prevent people from showing up at the HUMC for their 'free' services while repudiating Mason for her lies.  Costing HoldCo time and financial resources.

Let's call it what is it: harassment.

Try as she did, Mason couldn't stop the hospital sale.  But that won't stop her from wreaking havoc on its new owner.

Sick.

(Update, 5:50 pm)
Shame on you, GA...  Da Horsey posted the ad earlier today and you missed it...

Well here it is, folks. The AD.  Enjoy?

Comments

  1. Reprehensible indeed. I trust HoldCo is paying attention. Something tells me they won't tolerate any mis-truths.

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  2. ...and remember, it is this same set of four loose cannon MORTe members that think they are getting and deserving of a seat on the fledgling hospital board. I would think this reckless TV commercial stunt should be the death knell for that idea. People who behave fast and loose with the truth like this have no business in a boardroom.

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  3. Well said, ply. I wonder if there'll be any 'formal' response from the hospital owner.

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  4. Is there a psych ward at HUMC? Perhaps Mrs. Richard G. Mason would like to try on a lovely ensemble of a straight jacket complete with shoulder pads in an alluring shade of winter-white.

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  5. Seems pretty clear she'll just continue to launch more outlandish stunts until the citizens &/or the FBI put a stop to her.

    What cable station(s) aired this? How many "unsuspecting" do you really think it reached? How can they best be educated about the truth?

    The false claims of free services are indeed despicable. But do you really anticipate a caravan of Alzheimer's-ridden seniors, demanding free Aracept at the hospital's door? Ditto with the impoverished women's services. These are both already marginalized groups, with little political or advocacy power. It is sick and wrong to exploit them further.

    Separate from the power of her CC vote, Mason's become so publicly unhinged, she's more absurd & pathetic at this point.

    Is it possible that enough folks (unless they're taking her $$), may be starting to just tune her out, because they've heard enough & think, "Oh, it's HER again! Shut up already!"

    It's not like her presentation conjures either the smooth or the faux-homespun political-type that so often fools. The only thing she's utterly convincing about is her mental instability.

    It's now HoldCo's hospital & up to HoldCo to do the damage control on this one. A sad waste of resources, indeed. Even sadder that her lies apparently skirt legal culpability.

    But unless HoldCo had blinders on during the negotiations--especially when M.O.R.T. went rogue with their own proposal--they knew what they were in for.

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  6. Well, as vile as this ad is and her behavior has always been, she just continues to create gifts for whomever will oppose her in the recall. They can use her fiscal malfeasance, exploitation of the hospital and nurse's union and lying to the general public about the deals she claims she's brokered on behalf of women and the elderly.

    Keep it up, Mrs. Richard G. Mason, you waste of carbon matter... If the ethics officer at Wachtel, Lipton, Rosen & Katz doesn't stop you, there's always the FBI and the recall movement.

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  7. It wouldn't be the first time she was sued for false advertising.
    The agency Mason led in the sunset of her limited career made case law with regard to false advertising

    http://www.nytimes.com/1987/10/13/business/advertising-wilkinson-sword.html?src=pm

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  8. CASE: CONCLUSION

    For the reasons stated above, Friedman Benjamin, Inc. is jointly and severally liable with Wilkinson Sword, Inc., for the award to the Gillette Company of $ 953,000 plus prejudgment interest plus costs.

    SO ORDERED.

    DATED: New York, New York

    August 7, 1992

    Kimba M. Wood

    United States District Judge

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  9. http://ny.findacase.com/research/wfrmDocViewer.aspx/xq/fac.19920807_0000347.SNY.htm/qx

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  10. Thanks for pointing that out, Tony. It's often the case, and consistent here, that those who are dishonest and unethical in their dealings do not limit it to one area of their lives.

    Another lie concerning her "professional" experience is on her page of the City's website wherein she states she has "more than 21 years' experience". If she is 50 years old (I know, hard to believe) and her work experience ended in '92 when she was 31, she would had to have started working at ten years of age - what a child prodigy, delivering those deliverables when she was so young!

    Ricky Mason would be wise to find out what his wife doesn't tell him before she scuttles his career as she did to her own.

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