ST. CROIX — Months after winning a judgment worth more than $12 million in a dispute over unpaid staffing bills at Juan F. Luis Hospital, Worldwide Travel Staffing is asking the V.I. Superior Court to compel the territorial hospital board to pay, saying no money has been remitted despite the judgment becoming final.
The New York-based medical staffing company filed a petition for a writ of mandamus Thursday against the V.I. Government Hospitals and Health Facilities Corporation, or GHHFC, the public corporation that oversees the territory’s hospitals. According to the petition, the corporation has made no payment toward the judgment entered earlier this year.
Superior Court Judge Ernest E. Morris Jr. entered final judgment following a March 30 evidentiary hearing, awarding Worldwide $12,137,664.84. That amount consisted of $4,220,704.35 in unpaid invoices, $7,894,688.34 in prejudgment interest, $21,132.50 in attorneys’ fees and $1,139.65 in court costs.
The judgment capped more than a decade of litigation stemming from staffing services Worldwide provided to JFL. The company began supplying nurses and other healthcare professionals to the St. Croix hospital in 2005. Although JFL paid approximately $13.4 million over the life of the relationship, payments stopped in May 2013 and Worldwide stopped supplying nurses later that year with more than $4.2 million outstanding.
Worldwide filed suit in 2014. After years of litigation over which hospital entity could legally be held responsible, the case proceeded against GHHFC. Virgin Islands law treats JFL itself as a hospital facility rather than the public corporation authorized to sue and be sued; the territorial corporation has jurisdiction over JFL and its personnel and equipment.
According to Thursday’s petition, GHHFC neither sought a stay of the April judgment nor filed an appeal within the applicable 60-day period. Worldwide therefore argues that “the judgment is final, valid, and remains in full force and effect.”
The company says it sent a formal demand letter on August 18, providing hospital officials with the judgment and updated payoff calculations. Worldwide also says it has repeatedly provided calculations showing how the debt grew during the underlying dispute, but contends that GHHFC has neither paid down the judgment nor initiated what the company considers a good-faith settlement effort.
The difference between the interest that accumulated before the judgment and the interest now being added afterward is significant. The nearly $7.9 million contained in the April award was prejudgment interest accumulated over years on the original $4.22 million unpaid balance. Since judgment was entered, Virgin Islands law provides for post-judgment interest at 4 percent annually on money judgments.
Worldwide is Seeking Mandamus
Ordinarily, a creditor with an unpaid judgment may seek to attach or execute against a debtor’s property. That option is sharply limited here because the hospital corporation enjoys statutory protections.
Virgin Islands law expressly provides that all property and funds of GHHFC are exempt from attachment, levy, execution and similar judicial collection measures, and that a judgment does not automatically become a lien against the corporation’s property.
Worldwide argues that those protections leave it without the collection tools ordinarily available to a judgment creditor, making a writ of mandamus necessary. A writ of mandamus is a court order directing a public body or official to carry out a legal duty.
The company is asking Superior Court not only to direct GHHFC to satisfy the judgment but also to require a series of actions intended to produce payment and allow the court to monitor compliance.
Whether the court will grant that relief has not yet been determined.
Judgement Lands Amid Hospital Cash Crisis
The effort to collect more than $12 million comes as the territory’s public hospital system continues to confront severe cash-flow and debt problems.
Earlier this year, hospital leadership told lawmakers that both JFL and Schneider Regional Medical Center were struggling with weak billing and collections, vendor obligations and rising operating expenses. In March, JFL reported approximately $22.5 million in vendor debt, while hospital officials acknowledged that liquidity constraints were interfering with the timely payment of employee-related obligations and other expenses.
By August, the scale of JFL’s outstanding obligations had grown clearer. Hospital officials reported approximately $45.6 million in total obligations, including $22.9 million in accounts payable and $22.7 million in employee-related obligations. Some legacy debts dated as far back as 2005.
The hospital has also disclosed approximately $5.9 million owed to the Bureau of Internal Revenue and $6.4 million in Social Security taxes, while cash shortages have delayed other employee and vendor payments.
Earlier this week, JFL Senior Executive Director of Financial Services Asa Victor told Territorial Board members that year-to-date collections and revenue trends for 2026 remained behind the previous year despite stronger performance in July.
Those financial pressures do not alter the existence of the judgment Worldwide is attempting to collect. The company is now asking the court to determine how a judgment against a public corporation whose assets are largely shielded from conventional collection can actually be enforced.
