EBENSBURG — A dispute between Cambria Care Center and Johnstown-based Prodigy Dialysis temporarily shut down the dialysis unit at the Ebensburg home this week.

A court order issued Wednesday allowed the center to reopen, at least until a full hearing on Tuesday.

The festering spat centers on terms of Prodigy’s lease originally negotiated with Cambria County commissioners at the former Laurel Crest Rehabilitation and Special Care Center.

Prodigy, through its attorney, maintains the lease’s automatic extensions make it valid through December of this year, even though the county sold Laurel Crest to Cambria Care Center at the end of 2009.

Negotiations for a long-term lease with the new owners have been unsuccessful, Prodigy’s attorney, Richard J. Russell said in a court document.

Not so, contends the attorney for the nursing home’s management company, Grane Healthcare. Prodigy had been operating since 2010 under an unwritten month-by-month lease. In April, Grane ended that lease and ordered Prodigy to vacate.

It shouldn’t have come as a surprise to Prodigy’s founder, Dr. George J. Frem, said Terry Creagh, general counsel for Grane Health Care.

“He was told months ago he has to vacate the space,” Creagh said.

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