A hearing was held Thursday morning before St. Louis County Judge Heather R. Cunningham to decide whether to proceed with the Homer G. Phillips Nursing Association’s trademark infringement lawsuit against contractor Paul McKee and other defendants.
History, heritage and technical legal issues were closely intertwined as attorney Rick Voytas presented the arguments for the Nursing Association plaintiffs.
“We believe our strong position will bear fruit at this hearing,” Voytas said following the hearing, which took place in a packed courtroom with nursing association members and supporters, including Washington University’s Will Ross, associate dean for diversity and inclusion at Washington University School of Medicine and professor of medicine in the department of nephrology, and activist Percy Green.
Attorney Joseph Dulle argued for McKee that Cunningham should grant summary judgment and dismiss the case based on two arguments.
First, there is “no likelihood of confusion” between the Homer G. Phillips Nursing Association and the emergency department that McKee named Hamer G. Phillip.
Dulle argued that the Nursing Association “does not provide health services to the people of North St. Louis,” so there was “no confusion” regarding the use of the name.
Dulle told the court that there are “at least seven other companies” in the state of Missouri that use the name.
“They don’t like the use of the name; that’s not enough,” he said.
Voytas called the claim that the Nurses Association does not provide health services and training “dishonest.” He said his letter to Cunningham included more than 40 examples of community health services.
“These ladies are in society. They are alive and well and deserve the rightful protection of their names,” he said.
Voytas told Cunningham that the organization trademarked the name in May 2021, long before the emergency center saw its first patient.
In counterargument to the “no confusion” argument, Voytas said, “These ladies know who they are, and they know that Paul McKee’s hospital is not them and not their legacy.”
Voytas said McKee’s use of the name Homer G. Phillips was no different from his use of the name “Red Cross Hospital” for the emergency room.
“A team of lawyers who earn much more than I do would be here to protect the Red Cross name,” he said.
Following the hearing, Ross said the Washington University Homer G. Phillips Nursing Association lecture series is just one of the ways the organization is influencing health care in the region.
He called McKee’s legal arguments and use of the name “an insult to history and to Homer G. Phillips Hospital itself.”
Voytas expects that a decision may take up to two months.
“(The nurses) have a right to justice. And they have a right to not have their name used for a for-profit hospital,” he said.
