Ohio Department of Job & Family Services v. TultzOhio Department of Job & Family Services v. Tultz
{¶ 1} Defendants-appellants Gary J. Tultz and Sharon A. Bloomer, coexecutors of the estate of Ann M. Tultz, have appealed from an order of the Summit County Court of Common Pleas. The trial court granted judgment in favor of plaintiff-appellee Ohio Department of Job and Family Services on its action on the estate’s rejection of its claim in probate, and on the executors’ counterclaim
I
{¶ 2} John and Ann Tultz were husband and wife. From September 1998 until John’s death in April 2000, the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services (“ODJFS”) paid $74,613.41 out of Medicaid funds on behalf of John.
{¶ 3} Ann died in February 2001, and her estate included certain real estate appraised at $50,000. In September 2001, ODJFS recorded a lien against the real estate in the amount of $74,613.41 for recovery of the costs of services paid under Medicaid. ODJFS then filed a claim in that amount against Ann’s estate; the estate rejected the claim.
{¶ 4} In January 2002, ODJFS filed the instant action on its claim pursuant to
{¶ 5} The executors filed an answer and counterclaim, seeking an order declaring ODJFS’s lien void and directing the Summit County Auditor to strike the lien from the records of Summit County. In their counterclaim, the executors alleged that the lien was not authorized by Ohio law because Ohio allows recovery of costs paid only after the lien is recorded, and the costs ODJFS was attempting to recover through the lien were paid before the lien was obtained.
{¶ 6} Following a pretrial conference, the parties agreed to submit all issues raised by the complaint and counterclaim to the court on stipulations of fact and briefs. The court thereafter entered judgment in favor of ODJFS on its complaint in the amount of $74,613.41. The court also entered judgment in favor of ODJFS on the executors’ counterclaim, concluding that the lien filed by ODJFS was legal and valid.
{¶ 7} The executors have timely appealed, asserting two assignments of error.
II
Assignment of Error Number One
“The trial court wrongly decided that Ohio law permits estate recovery from the estate of the Medicaid recipient’s former spouse.”
{¶ 8} In their first assignment of error, the executors have argued that the trial court erred in determining that Ohio allows recovery of the costs of Medicaid services from the estate of the recipient’s former spouse. The executors have
{¶ 9} This court reviews de novo a trial court’s interpretation and application of statutes. See
Akron v. Frazier
(2001),
{¶ 10}
“For the purpose of recovering the cost of services correctly paid under the medical assistance program to a recipient age fifty-five or older, [ODJFS] shall institute an estate recovery program against the property and estates of medical assistance recipients to recover medical assistance correctly paid on their behalf to the extent that federal law and regulations permit the implementation of a program of that nature. The department shall seek to recover medical assistance correctly paid only after the recipient and the recipient’s surviving spouse, if any, have died and only at a time when the recipient has no surviving child who is under age twenty-one or blind or permanently and totally disabled.”R.C. 5111.11(B) .
{¶ 11}
“[ODJFS] may place a lien against the property of a medical assistance recipient or recipient’s spouse * * * that the department may recover as part of the program instituted under [R.C. 5111.11 ], When medical assistance is paid on behalf of any person in circumstances under which federal law and regulations and this section permit the imposition of a lien, the director of [ODJFS] or a person designated by the director may sign a certificate to the effect. * * * From the time of filing the certificate in the office of the county recorder, the lien attaches to all real property of the recipient or spouse described therein for all amounts of aid which thereafter are paid, and shall remain a lien until satisfied.”R.C. 5111.111.
{¶ 12} The executors have argued that the language of
{¶ 13}
{¶ 14} In addition, Ohio law limits ODJFS’s imposition of liens for purposes of recovery to “circumstances under which federal law and regulations and this section permit the imposition of a lien[.]”
{¶ 15} The necessary consequence of the executors’ position — that ODJFS can recover only from the estate of the recipient but cannot commence recovery until after the death of the surviving spouse — would be that recovery is precluded where the assets of the recipient’s estate have been distributed and the estate closed. In other words, where the recipient is survived by a spouse, ODJFS would be able to recover only if the surviving spouse died while the recipient’s estate was still open and subject to ODJFS’s claim. Such an arbitrary condition for recovery is clearly at odds with the intent of the recovery program as contemplated by federal law and manifested by
“[B]ecause both federal and state law allow recovery only after the death of an individual’s surviving spouse, dual interests are served. One policy prevents the impoverishment of the surviving spouse during his or her lifetime. Once that spouse dies and the need for protection from impoverishment ceases, allowing a state to recover medical assistance benefits previously paid furthers the broader purpose of funding future services to the medically needy. These policies are both served by allowing the state to recover medical assistance benefits paid to or on behalf of a predeceased spouse from a surviving spouse’s estate, to the extent the assets contained in that estate were jointly owned by the couple during their marriage.” (Citations omitted.) In re Estate of Jobe (1999),590 N.W.2d 162 , 166.
{¶ 16} Given the stipulated facts in the case sub judice, we conclude that the trial court properly determined that ODJFS could pursue recovery from the property that had passed through Ann’s estate. The executors’ first assignment of error is not well taken.
Assignment of Error Number Two
“The trial court wrongly decided that the ODJFS lien was valid when placed against the property that had been owned by the Medicaid recipient’s survivingspouse, despite the fact that the lien was placed after the death of the surviving spouse.”
{¶ 17} In their second assignment of error, the executors have argued that the trial court erred by determining that the lien placed by ODJFS on property in Ann’s estate was valid and enforceable. The executors have contended that the lien is invalid because it was placed after all medical assistance had been rendered to John, and after the deaths of both John and Ann.
{¶ 18}
{¶ 19} However, as discussed under the executors’ first assignment of error, ODJFS may not pursue recovery until after the recipient and the recipient’s spouse have died, and federal law restricts ODJFS’s ability to file liens during the lifetime of the recipient. By definition and design, the “estate recovery program” established by
{¶ 20} Finally, the executors have argued that ODJFS’s lien is not enforceable for the amount of the judgment entered by the trial court because all medical assistance had been rendered to John before the lien was recorded. Relying on the language of
{¶ 21}
“From the time of filing the certificate in the office of the county recorder, the lien attaches to all real property of the recipient or spouse described therein for all amounts of aid which thereafter are paid, and shall remain a lien until satisfied.”
{¶ 23} We conclude that the language authorizing a lien “for all amounts of aid which thereafter are paid” was intended to assist rather than to thwart the estate recovery program established by
Ill
{¶ 24} The executors’ assignments of error are overruled. The judgment of the trial court is affirmed.
Judgment affirmed.