A home is determined to still be in the name of an institutionalized Medicaid recipient because a quitclaim deed given to the recipient's son was never recorded and the son failed to file a timely administrative appeal. Because the home is no longer an exempt resource, the recipient's benefits are terminated. Morris v. Morris(Ohio Ct. App., 2d, No. 2003-CA-94, Nov. 12, 2004).
Doris Morris entered a nursing facility in 2001 and began receiving Medicaid coverage. In April 2003, Clark County Family Services (CCFS) determined that Mrs. Morris still owned her home. Since the home could no longer be considered an exempt source, the agency informed Mrs. Morris that her Medicaid eligibility would terminate. Her son, Bryan, acting under a power of attorney, appealed the decision. At a hearing, Mr. Morris presented a copy of a quitclaim deed given to him by his mother on October 26, 1996, and asserted that he had resided in the property and had paid all taxes and mortgages ever since. The hearing officer found that the quitclaim deed had not been recorded and concluded that the property was still a resource to Mrs. Morris. Mr. Morris requested an administrative appeal of this decision but missed the filing deadline by one day.
Mr. Morris then went to court seeking to quiet title the home and force the reinstatement of his mother's Medicaid benefits. The trial court granted summary judgment to CCFS, holding that it lacked jurisdiction because the quiet title action was an improper collateral attack on the unappealed administrative determination. Mr. Morris appealed, contending that resort to an administrative remedy would have been futile because CCFS has no expertise in property law and that in any case Ohio law establishes that legal title to real estate passes upon delivery, not recording.
The Court of Appeals of Ohio affirms, agreeing that the trial court lacked jurisdiction. "The legal issue involved was not complex," the court writes, "and a timely appeal by Mrs. Morris of the initial agency decision might have been successful before the Hearing Examiner who was an attorney. Also Mrs. Morris might have appealed to the common pleas court in the event the Hearing Examiner got the legal issue wrong."