A Connecticut court rules that the administrator of a decedent's estate lacks standing to appeal the denial of Medicaid benefits to the decedent because the decedent died before filing the appeal. Freese v. Dept. of Social Services (Conn. Super. Ct., No. CV14-6047417S, June 1, 2015).
Kathleen Freese, acting as next friend and putative administratrix for her mother, Noreen McCusker, appealed the decision of Connecticut's Department of Social Services that found her mother ineligible for Medicaid benefits. Ms. Freese was later appointed administrator of her mother's estate.
The Department challenged Ms. Freese's standing to sue on her mother's behalf, asserting that nothing in the law authorized a next friend or putative administrator to sue in a deceased person's place. Ms. Freese countered that any defect in her standing to appeal the denial could be cured by substituting her in her capacity as administrator of her mother's estate retroactively to the date the appeal was filed.
The Connecticut Superior Court, Judicial District of Fairfield at Bridgeport, disagrees, finding that Ms. McCusker was the real party in interest and that because she died before appealing the denial, her estate's administrator lacked standing to sue in her place. The court finds that “[t]o assert such a right of action, the executor or administrator must bring his own action as executor or administrator. He cannot bootstrap litigation of the right to an invalid action.”
For the full text of this decision, click here. For the trial court's file of the case, click here.
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