WE ARE CERTAIN the Anne Arundel Medical Center's board would not have chosen Madison Homes to develop its Annapolis site had it known about the developers' past troubles.
The board could not have known that the company's principals, while operating a company with a different name, left a trail of shoddy projects, broken promises, lawsuits and court judgments.
Board members, undoubtedly, didn't know that one partner, Russell Rosenberger, lost his Virginia law license after acknowledging that he tapped into trust accounts he'd managed.
And they were oblivious -- they had to be -- to the fact that an appellate court ruling against a company operated by Mr. Rosenberger and Milton Schneiderman established Maryland case law, giving condominium owners the right to sue under the state's Consumer Protection Act. The condo owners were awarded $6.7 million in that case against the company and Mr. Schneiderman, personally, in 1994.
Thanks to a story by Sun reporters Amanda J. Crawford and Andrea F. Siegel, the board knows all of this now. Unfortunately, it's too late. The development firm has a contract with Anne Arundel Medical Center to build 130 homes on the 4.5-acre site the hospital will vacate next year for nearby Parole.
Anne Arundel Medical Center had a responsibility to ensure its property would be developed professionally and competently.
The hospital needs to examine its options. If it can't get out of its deal with Madison, it must guarantee that the work reaches the standards one would expect of a project in the heart of Maryland's historic capital. City inspectors also should scrutinize the work.
Knowing what they know now, the hospital and city should monitor every step of construction to ensure that Madison doesn't repeat past mistakes.
