A Maryland Court of Special Appeals judge ruled Monday that Prince George’s County must pay the operator of the county hospital system $2 million.

The county had received a temporary stay from the court on the payment originally scheduled to be made by Aug. 9., but the judge declined to make the stay permanent after reviewing Dimensions Healthcare System’s response.

John F. Morkan III, an attorney for Dimensions, said he expects the payment “promptly.”

Last month, Prince George’s Circuit Court Judge Dwight Jackson issued a temporary injunction requiring the county to pay Dimensions $2 million by Aug. 9, but ruled that Prince George’s didn’t need to pay the $12 million it pledged for fiscal 2008.

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Jackson made his decision on the $2 million based on the likelihood that Dimensions will prevail at a merits hearing slated to begin Sept. 10.

He determined there was no contract binding the county to make any payments but said Dimensions could have reasonably believed it would get the $2 million, which was part of a $9 million emergency appropriation for fiscal ‘07. Prince George’s paid $7 million before telling Dimensions’ board in June that there would be no more money until four of its board members resigned.

The county filed the stay request because of concern that it wouldn’t be able to recover the $2 million if it won at the merits hearing.

On Friday, Dimensions’ attorneys filed an amended complaint in Circuit Court seeking the money the county had pledged for fiscal 08.

“We are just trying to do what we initially did under a slightly different legal theory,” Morkan said. “It’s simply taking the position that the County Council has appropriated these funds for Dimensions use [for fiscal 08], which began on July 1 and, under what we think is long-standing Maryland precedent, the county executive is legally bound to turn those monies over as they become due.”

dfowler@dcexaminer.com