Neighbors sue Good Samaritan University Hospital, claim construction there has caused $10M in damage to their homes

Brian Branigan felt his house shake so hard March 10, 2023, that he believed he had experienced an earthquake.

“I thought the house was going to get knocked down,” said Branigan, 54, who was in his West Islip home with his son, who was 7 at the time.

Soon he got calls from neighbors: “Did you feel that?" he recalled them saying.

Branigan and other neighbors of Good Samaritan University Hospital say their homes have been rocked by vibrations from ongoing construction for years, since the medical facility started work on a $500 million expansion known as the patient care pavilion, and a flood resiliency project.

Now more than 30 people are suing the hospital, its contractors and the hospital system Catholic Health, citing the damage they say the vibrations have caused, and for what they view as a failure from hospital administrators to take responsibility. The residents' attorney estimates their cumulative damages to be at least $10 million. Attorneys representing the hospital, contractors and others named in lawsuits have denied the allegations, saying the problems were unavoidable.  

Branigan and other residents of the West Islip community known as Babylon Beach Estates have described cracks in beams, foundations, pipes and walls, and buckled floors and patios — totaling, for some, hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage, according to contractors' estimates they provided to Newsday.

Multiple residents commissioned engineering reports to assess damage to their homes. Reports viewed by Newsday say improper use of equipment on the part of contractors working at the hospital appears to have been the cause.

The hospital, in its court-filed response, said "the alleged injuries and damages, if any, were the result of unavoidable circumstances that could not have been prevented by any person."

The lawsuits

Twenty-three residents filed suit in March of last year in Suffolk County Supreme Court, alleging that on March 10 a year earlier — the day Branigan and his son felt their house shake — at least 15 separate properties “experienced severe vibrations and shockwaves" from construction work at the hospital, causing structural and cosmetic damage to their homes.  

At least two other suits, representing another eight people, also have been filed. 

Sued in addition to the hospital were:

• Catholic Health Systems of Long Island Inc., the health system under the sponsorship of the Diocese of Rockville Centre that encompasses Good Samaritan and, nearby, Our Lady of Consolation Nursing and Rehabilitation center; 
• The nursing and rehabilitation center, which is located behind the hospital and is the site of the flood mitigation project on the Good Samaritan campus;
• Posillico Inc., the contractor hired by Good Samaritan to build the flood mitigation project;
• P.W. Grosser Consulting Inc., hired by Catholic Health to perform design, planning and reporting services for the flood mitigation project;
• Wang Technology LLC, retained by Posillico to monitor vibrations from work on the flood mitigation project at Our Lady of Consolation;
• Adjo Contracting Corp. and E.W. Howell Co. LLC, whose roles were not outlined in court records. Adjo's website says the Bohemia-based company specializes in heavy construction services, and E.W. Howell's website says the Plainview business provided pre-construction and construction services for the patient care pavilion project.

Attorneys representing Catholic Health, Adjo and P.W. Grosser declined to comment. A representative from E.W. Howell said the firm doesn't comment on pending litigation. Posillico Inc. did not respond to multiple calls and emails for comment.

A motion for dismissal filed by Wang Technology on Sept. 17, which a judge later denied, said the company monitored only the flood resiliency project — not the hospital expansion — and "no vibrations in excess of legally acceptable limits were ever measured at any time."

Wang Technology last month filed an appeal of the judge's denial. Phone and email messages left with that company's attorney were not returned.

Hospital spokesman Justin Jaycon reiterated in a Jan. 29 emailed statement that the hospital denies the allegations and said the claims from neighbors "are related to work conducted by experienced contractors on a flood-resiliency project aimed at safeguarding the hospital's infrastructure and the surrounding community in emergency situations."

"It is important to emphasize that this project is separate from the construction seen on Montauk Highway, part of the Hospital’s new 300,000-square-foot Patient Care Pavilion," he said.

The flood resiliency project will be completed by the end of June, he said, and the patient care pavilion is expected to take its first patient by the end of the year.

Jaycon declined to speak further on the issue "due to ongoing litigation."

Construction in the neighborhood 

The $500 million expansion of the hospital has been in the works since at least December 2019, Newsday has reported. Plans included several upgrades: a 75-bay emergency department, 16 surgical suites and 36 new private patient rooms.

Also included was a flood mitigation and resiliency project.

Work on the flood resiliency project began November 2021, Jaycon said. 

That federally funded project, according to an agreement with P.W. Grosser contained in court records, includes the construction of permanent flood barrier walls around the perimeter of Good Samaritan Hospital and Our Lady of Consolation, with self-closing gates, and the rerouting of pipes to separate rainfall runoff from wastewater.

Construction at the hospital is nothing new. It has undergone six other major expansions since opening in 1959 with 183 beds.

But residents who remember earlier expansions and other hospital construction say they have never experienced vibrations and tremors at the level they have in this latest phase.

"We've been through multiple iterations of hospital expansions," said Cale Smith, 42, who said he grew up in the neighborhood. "But with that said, we've only experienced damage to our house with this latest project."

According to the suit representing the majority of plaintiffs, construction has “involved the use of heavy equipment and high impact activities,” such as excavation and pile driving, which residents believe caused the shaking felt on March 10 two years ago.

An exchange between town workers, sent on that March 10, cites a resident complaint about vibrations from nearby construction that dates back to May 2022. The emails between Islip engineering inspector Anthony Bacchus and the town's engineer, Christopher Poelker, were obtained through a public information request. Bacchus wrote that the vibrations of May 2022 had been "attributed to the improper use of an excavator bucket to demolish pavement along West Drive," a small road between the hospital and Babylon Beach Estates.

Bacchus noted in the email exchange that contractors said monitoring software had not alerted workers to any vibration readings exceeding or near an established threshold. 

After March 10, 2023, residents repeatedly complained to hospital administrators about the damage caused by shock waves and vibrations from construction, the suit says.

Though the hospital has denied allegations related to the damage, on March 20 of that year — 10 days after the shaking that Branigan recalled — Good Samaritan’s then-president Ruth Hennessey issued a press release warning that nearby residents may experience vibrations in the coming weeks because of work on the flood resiliency project.

After another significant shaking event on March 28, residents contacted Poelker, according to the suit. 

At a neighbor's home later that same day, with contractors and Islip Town engineering staff present, “additional severe vibrations and shockwaves were felt,” according to the suit, despite contractors “advising that the vibration meters were not registering any vibrations exceeding the acceptable limits." It's not clear, based on the complaint, whether the vibrations were being read at that home. 

Separately, engineering reports from neighbors mention that Bacchus told one of them that, based on his inspections of neighborhood homes, he would recommend the town shut down the excavation job. 

A March 30 inspection form from the town engineering department noted that contractors Posillico and Adjo "halted work associated with ground vibrations" and would "contact the engineering department to inform them of an alternative method of installation," according to the suit. 

Despite knowing that construction was “causing severe damage” to the nearby neighborhood, the hospital and its hired contractors “nevertheless continued working unabated … causing further vibrations and shockwaves, which, in turn, caused further damage,” according to the suit.

Town 'kind of a mediator'

Town of Islip officials declined to comment for this story.

The town, which issued approvals for the construction projects, is not named in the lawsuits. Despite some initial inspections, some residents have expressed frustration with what they said has been a lack of response by the town to their appeals for help. 

"We've gone to the town, we've gone to every legislature, we've gone to everybody," said Denise Branigan. But, her husband added, they're still waiting for help. 

"The town is kind of the mediator on this, because they authorized the project to be built," said former town Councilman John Cochrane, whose district included the impacted neighborhood. "The Town of Islip engineers approved the plans for the hospital to do what they were doing." 

Town staff and hospital administrators maintained a spreadsheet listing at least 13 residents who claimed vibrations from nearby construction had damaged their homes, town records show. The spreadsheet showed complaints dating to January 2023. 

Islip Town Supervisor Angie Carpenter sent a letter to Catholic Health president and CEO Dr. Patrick O’Shaughnessy on June 9, 2023, informing him that her office had received “numerous calls from residents near Good Samaritan University Hospital whose homes have been damaged as a result of the ongoing work” there.

“In each case, the homeowner has reached out to the hospital and has been referred to the contractor. However, the contractor then refers the homeowner back to the hospital," said Carpenter's letter, obtained by Newsday. "This has caused widespread ill will, as these people feel that they are victims in a dispute between the hospital and its contractor.” 

In the letter, Carpenter urged O’Shaughnessy to intervene.

The hospital also sent a letter that June to some residents. The letter, obtained by Newsday, noted that Good Samaritan's insurance carriers had been notified about potential claims, which, the hospital said, would be "thoroughly investigated and handled in a fair and expeditious manner." 

Residents said the hospital sent inspectors to their homes and asked them to fill out claim forms describing the damage.

Hospital administrators offered Cale Smith and his mother, Donna Smith — who was a nurse at Good Samaritan for 38 years — $300 for damage caused by vibrations, according to public records obtained by Newsday.

The Smiths said damage has included, among other things, cracked support beams and walls. They showed a Newsday reporter contractor estimates and receipts totaling more than six figures in damage.

The hospital's offer “was disenchanting, to say the least,” said Cale, who recently bought the house from his mother.

On June 13, about 100 people attended a neighborhood meeting that was meant as an appeal for help to elected officials, said Branigan, who is president of the neighborhood civic, Babylon Beach Estates Association. Town, county and state elected officials were invited to the meeting, Branigan said; the hospital was not.

Cochrane, who was a councilman at the time, said a town attorney told him that because of the potential for litigation, he should not attend.

At the meeting, more than 20 people shared stories of how they have been affected by the construction, Branigan said.

"The Town of Islip never showed up. After they were in all our houses, they didn't take the invite," he said. 

An engineer's assessment

Bruce and Doreen Radin live on a dead end in West Islip, just feet away from a bike path that leads across hospital grounds. Since the start of construction, damage to their home has included cracked pipes around their house and property, and the shifting of bricks around their in-ground pool, the couple said. 

“In the beginning, I didn’t pay much attention to it,” said Bruce Radin, 60.

But then, on a day he was home while construction continued next door, “the entire house was just shaking,” he said. “When I looked out the door, I saw this machine, and they were just pounding the ground.”

Many residents independently hired an engineer to examine the damage to their homes and assess repairs. Several retained the same engineer, Michael Drake, based on Captree Island.

One of the inspection reports compiled by a professional engineer, Michael Drake, hired by several of the homeowners, concluded: "The damage to the house and property appear to be caused by both large and small vibrations from the hospital construction."

Drake notes in his reports that, based on conversations with residents, the source of vibrations appeared to be “a large hydraulic excavator” weighing over 91,000 pounds that “was effectively used as a giant hammer to drive the sheet/panel pilings.”

“Both the large and small vibrations that were experienced from the excavation work and the work mobilization coupled with the soil conditions of the area, allow for the shock waves to travel substantial distances,” he wrote.

The soil in the area comprises clay, loam, bog and other organic materials, he wrote, noting: “These waves can and do shake everything, and tend to damage building or site features that are inherently brittle or damage features that depend upon their bases to not move.”

Drake declined to be interviewed for this story. 

In April 2023, National Grid investigated potential leaks in the neighborhood in response to community concerns, according to records obtained by Newsday. The utility company found no emergency conditions or damage to gas facilities, according to survey results, but did repair three “non-emergency findings."

National Grid spokeswoman Wendy Frigeria said in a statement that the company "regularly inspects the system to ensure its safety and reliability," and the utility's facilities in the neighborhood were not impacted by nearby construction. 

A last resort

Residents who spoke to Newsday said suing was a last resort. But, as Doreen Radin pointed out, “Everybody was having the same problems.”

“Everyone was passing the buck," Bruce Radin said.

For Helen Jones, 67, who is among the plaintiffs, the experience has been emotionally wrenching.

Her late husband, Howard, who designed furniture for a living, maintained the house and built the shed in the backyard where he and Jones liked to sit and chat.

He was in declining health when the vibrations started, she said. After he died, the vibrations cracked the shed's concrete floor. 

"I left the chairs there because I didn't have the heart to take them away," Jones said.

Her home was damaged in multiple places by the vibrations, she said. On a tour of her house, she showed a reporter her kitchen floor, which seemed to bend over a lifted beam.

Among multiple neighbors who showed Newsday repair estimates from contractors touting six figures were the Branigans. They have already spent thousands on repairs to the home they built for their five children since moving to the neighborhood in 1997, they said. 

Yet they described themselves as “true supporters of the hospital.”

Their youngest son, now 9, was born prematurely there. Medical staff saved his life, nursing him back to health in the hospital's neonatal intensive care unit, they said.

“They do God’s work,” Denise Branigan said.

She has participated in marketing for the hospital, and the family even attended a groundbreaking ceremony for the expansion. But how the hospital administration has handled the collateral damage that the Branigans say was caused by construction has frustrated the family.

Their backyard, with a now-damaged pool and patio, is supposed to be a “safe haven” for their youngest son, they said. “He’s got sensory issues,” Denise said. “Water is his best friend. … We were robbed of that for the last two years.”

As for the future, "we don't know what to plan for because we just don't know what's going to happen next," Denise said. "That part is beyond frustrating."

By Brianne Ledda

brianne.ledda@newsday.com@brianne_ledda

Brianne Ledda covers personal finance and affordability for Newsday. She previously covered Southold and Greenport for The Suffolk Times and is a graduate of Stony Brook University.