Bad medicine
World-famous Boston hospital to wealthy Washington philanthropist: Pay up or we'll sue you.
In fact, Massachusetts Eye & Ear Infirmary is doing just that. Having lost one of its marquee doctors to its even more famous neighbor, Massachusetts General Hospital, Mass. Eye & Ear has sued the publicity-shy widow's foundation over the $2 million she promised to fund cutting-edge research designed to help people, mainly elderly cancer patients, save or restore their voices or swallow their food. It is the kind of unusual, ham-handed approach that could in the long run cost Mass. Eye & Ear a lot more than $2 million.
At the center of the story is a doctor and his patron. Steven Zeitels, 47, has gotten much press over the years as a voice doctor to the stars whose patient list includes Steven Tyler, Cher, and Julie Andrews. His benefactor, philanthropist Betty Brown Casey, 78, would rather have no press at all, but the size of her wealth and the ambition of her projects have a way of attracting attention.
Casey grew up poor, but married well. By the time her husband of 31 years, famously tight-fisted Maryland speculator and developer Eugene B. Casey, died in 1986, he had accumulated a fortune estimated at more than $200 million. While he was so cheap that he would turn off the Coke machine when he left his office at night to save electricity, she has become one of Washington's most generous philanthropists. Among her projects: spending millions on the Washington Opera and $50 million to plant trees.
It was Casey's love of the opera that brought her to Zeitels. One of his patients, famed mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves, introduced them, and in 2002 the foundation pledged $2 million to his research at Mass. Eye & Ear. But a year ago, he and his team, including four other researchers, moved to Mass. General. Soon afterward, according to court documents, she asked that Mass. Eye & Ear return all unspent contributions from the foundation.
In a lawsuit filed last month, Mass. Eye & Ear says the foundation has so far paid half the $2 million, and is demanding the balance. The hospital says the donation was meant for the institution and not for any particular researcher. Accepting a gift for one doctor ''would raise serious legal questions under the tax law and under Massachusetts charitable law," the hospital's lawsuit says.
Zeitels says he is not a lawyer, but he says Casey's intent was clear. ''She was funding a specific program with unique investigators that was delineated both in the original proposal before she funded it as well as scientific reports she received afterward," he said in an interview. He says he left Mass. Eye & Ear because Mass. General offered more resources.
His new boss, Dr. Andrew Warshaw, Mass. General's surgeon in chief, says Mass. Eye & Ear is simply hurt at losing one of its biggest stars. ''They had someone very special who chose to leave," he says. ''If your child grows up and an opportunity arises, you are supposed to wish them well. Steve grew up, and moved on. But they didn't see it that way."
A Mass. Eye & Ear spokeswoman declined to comment; so did Casey's lawyers. But it is a safe bet Betty Casey will be writing no more checks there. Instead, Harvard Medical School tomorrow will appoint Zeitels to the Eugene B. Casey chair in laryngeal surgery. The cost to the Casey Foundation: $2.75 million.
Mass. Eye & Ear, meanwhile, can wrestle over the past with Casey's pit bull of an attorney, Brendan Sullivan, the man who came to prominence defending Oliver North and is now one of Washington's sought-after lawyers.
Steve Bailey is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at bailey@globe.com or at 617-929-2902. 
