St. Clare’s Hospital retirees appear in court over pension dispute

Retirees from the former St. Clare’s Hospital in Schenectady had their day in court on Friday.

They are suing the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany over their pensions.

Three years ago, the 1,100 former employees found out they would not receive a pension that was promised or would see their pension drastically reduced.

"Each of the advocates spoke for about 10 minutes and the court asked them questions about the briefings, mainly focusing on sort of the motion to dismiss standard and the history of what had happened and a few basic things like that," said Dara Smith, with AARP.

Smith says the appellate court usually rules in six to eight weeks.

The diocese provided us with this statement:

"The Diocese of Albany was never involved in the ownership, governance, control, and operation of St. Clare’s Hospital or St. Clare’s Corporation, including its assets, investments, liabilities and pension plan That fact was presented once again by diocesan counsel during oral arguments last week. Bishop Scharfenberger, as a board member, continues to work with pensioners, legislators, and other interested parties in seeking a solution to this very difficult situation. Many of them have called for the State to join this effort because of its role in the hospital closing and its pension woes.”