A Minnesota appeals court rules that the state may assert an estate recovery claim against property that was owned in joint tenancy at the time of a Medicaid recipient's death and that flowed into her surviving spouse's estate. In re the Estate of Grote (Minn. Ct. App., No. A08-1691, June 2, 2009).
Lavina Grote, a Medicaid recipient, died in 1996 owning a piece of property and several bank accounts as joint tenants with her husband, Sylvester. Later, Mr. Grote also required Medicaid coverage for long-term care. Upon Mr. Grote's death in 2006, the Minnesota Medicaid agency attempted to recover the value of both Mr. and Mrs. Grote's medical assistance from Mr. Grote's estate. The personal representative of the estate allowed most of the Medicaid agency's claim for benefits paid to Mr. Grote, but refused to allow reimbursement for Mrs. Grote's medical care.
The trial court permitted estate recovery for medical assistance paid to both Mr. and Mrs. Grote and allowed the state to recover from the full value of the property. Mr. Grote's estate appealed, relying on the Minnesota Supreme Court's decision in In re Estate of Barg, in which the court determined that the state could recover only from assets that the Medicaid recipient had a legal interest in at the time of her death. Mr. Grote's estate, citing common law, claimed that Mrs. Grote's joint interest in the property was not a legal interest at the time of her death, while the state argued that Barg was distinguishable because in that case the Medicaid recipient had given her share of the property to her husband before her death, while Mrs. Grote still owned a joint interest in the property at death.
The Court of Appeals of Minnesota upholds the trial court's decision and allows estate recovery against the entire property for medical assistance paid to both Mr. and Mrs. Grote. The court agrees with the state that Mrs. Grote had an interest in the property at her death that passed into her husband's estate and was therefore recoverable upon his death. The court goes on to find that "[Mr. Grote] ceased being a joint tenant and became the sole owner of the property at the time of [Mrs. Grote's] death . . . the extent of the interest conveyed through joint tenancy to [Mr. Grote] by [Mrs. Grote's] death was her interest in the entire property, which is therefore available for . . . recovery."
For the full text of this decision, go to: https://www.lawlibrary.state.mn.us/archive/ctappub/0906/opa081691-0602.pdf
Did you know that the ElderLawAnswers database now contains summaries of more than 1,500 fully searchable elder law decisions dating back to 1993? To search the database, click here
Subscribe to the Knowledge Bank.
