Beth Israel Medical Center in Manhattan has dodged a lawsuit to recoup $4 million in gifts filed by the estate of copper mine heiress Huguette Clark in 2013. The elderly multimillionaire spent nearly 20 years in the hospital until her death at age 104 in 2011. Her estate's lawyers and a public administrator alleged that her stay there was not medically merited and that she was overcharged by hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Clark gave the hospital $940,000 in donations, plus a Manet painting. Her estate argued that she was not mentally competent to make such gifts.

Millions more were bilked from Clark through fake friendships, alleged the suit which sought $95 million overall. Claims against two doctors and a nurse are still pending.

Manhattan Surrogate Court Justice Nora Anderson threw out the suit, saying that the statute of limitations had run out. She ruled that the hospital could keep the cash gifts, along with the proceeds of the sale of Clark's donated 1864 Manet painting, Pivoines dans une bouteille (Peonies in a Bottle), which fetched $3.5 million at Christie's.

“We are hopeful that Beth Israel Medical Center . . . will ultimately answer for its prolonged and rampant financial exploitation of Huguette Clark,” said her great-grandnephew, Ian Clark Devine, following the ruling.

After a $300 million suit was settled out of court in 2013, Clark's 19 distant relatives reportedly received $34.5 million from her estate, $11.5 million went to her lawyers, and $1 million to Beth Israel.

There is no word yet on whether the IRS will waive all or part of the $16-$18 million in back taxes that Clark owed from her major gifts. Also, the status of Clark's mansion called Bellosguardo is still up in the air. She intended her oceanfront Santa Barbara estate to function as a non-profit arts foundation.