NEW ORLEANS -- A lawsuit claiming Louisiana's biggest hospital for the poor and mentally ill was closed by an illegal sleight of hand after Hurricane Katrina will be heard in New Orleans, a Civil District Court judge said Friday.

Judge Ethel Julian ruled on a request by the Louisiana State University division that runs the state's public hospitals to have the lawsuit moved from New Orleans, where Charity Hospital is located, to Baton Rouge, where LSU is based.

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The old Charity Hospital

She also denied LSU requests to throw out the lawsuit, including one alleging it was vague.

Calvin Johnson, a retired Criminal District Court judge representing the plaintiffs, could not be reached immediately for comment.

The huge hospital near the Louisiana Superdome has been closed since Katrina struck Aug. 29, flooding the area.

"Today's ruling had nothing to do with the merits of the case, it was a procedural hearing," said Marvin McGraw, spokesman for the public hospital system. "LSU did not close Charity Hospital, Hurricane Katrina closed Charity Hospital."

He said that, with 239 beds at University Hospital and 40 clinics, the system in New Orleans "is approaching pre-Katrina levels in terms of service."

The two public hospitals in New Orleans had about 500 beds before the storm.

The city has fewer residents than it did then, but the number of homeless has about doubled.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)