A New Jersey appeals court ruled that the State must hold a full evidentiary hearing before rejecting the claim of an assisted living facility resident who wanted to deduct the cost of a full-time aide from the income she paid to the facility. G.F. v. Division of Medical Assistance and Health Services (N.J. Super. Ct., App… read more →
A U.S. district court held that a claim by Medicaid applicants against New Jersey officials for wrongly denying their applications is barred by the Eleventh Amendment because it would require the state to pay retroactive benefits. Radogna v. Connolly (U.S. Dist. Ct., D. N.J., No. 1:16-cv-5477 (NLH/KMW), Aug. 24, 2018). Dominic Rodogna and Solomon Krupka both.. read more →
Love And Care Provided By Nephew Did Not Justify His Failure To Notify Any Beneficiaries Of The Existence Of Aunt’s Will
In 1998, Joan McFadden executed two powers of attorney (POAs) and a Living Will-Durable Health Care Power appointing John McFadden, her nephew, as her agent and attorney in fact, and Mary Sexton, her niece and John’s sister, as her alternative agent and attorney-in-fact. The two POAs stated that they would become effective upon the following.. read more →
After a trial court, expressing its disagreement with the legislative policy underlying special needs trusts, placed only a portion of the net settlement proceeds of a lawsuit brought on behalf of a severely disabled person into a special needs trust and ordered the remaining funds be paid directly to the disabled person, resulting in the.. read more →
At the time of Carol Rankins’ death in 2015, she had been married to Clyde Rankins for 28 years. She had one adopted daughter and two daughters from a prior relationship. The decedent’s surviving spouse was granted letters of administration of her intestate estate. One of her surviving daughters, Ursula, later filed a complaint seeking.. read more →
A tenancy by the entirety is a form of joint property ownership, available only to spouses, that is created when a husband and wife take title to real or personal property “under a written instrument designating both their names as husband and wife.” Case law has recognized that property held as tenants by the entirety.. read more →
The decedent was killed in a motor vehicle accident. After his death, his father was appointed as personal representative of his estate, to administer the non-probate estate and to prosecute a wrongful death action. Plaintiff was the biological mother of the decedent’s two sons. She never married the decedent, and she raised the children on.. read more →
John F. McGrail, Jr. died intestate in 2016. His uncle, William J. McGrail, Jr., then filed a complaint against his nephew John’s estate, claiming ownership of a classic car that was part of that estate. The uncle had entered a nursing home in Maryland in 2009. He claimed that, after he entered the nursing home,.. read more →
The decedent had five children, and his will divided his residuary estate among them. He left 25% of the residuary estate to his daughter Eileen. He also directed that Eileen’s bequest was to include the family home, which was to be a credit toward her bequest; in the event that the “total net estate” was.. read more →
Reversing decisions of trial and appellate courts, a divided California Supreme Court ruled that judges can’t order Yelp Inc., the online ratings site, to remove unflattering, one-star reviews of a San Francisco lawyer and her law firm posted by a user of the Yelp website who was an angry former client of the law firm… read more →
During his relationship with life partner Marc Coleman, the decedent executed a Last Will and Testament naming Coleman as the executor and primary beneficiary of his estate. The couple later ended their relationship. Thereafter, the decedent entered into a new relationship with Kirston Baylock. The decedent later died unexpectedly. At issue was a hand-written codicil.. read more →
A.F. was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and osteoarthritis in 2007. She also had difficulty walking. Her husband, T.F., was in failing health, with Parkinson’s disease and COPD, and had other mobility issues. Beginning in 2012, T.F. could not care for A.F. due to his own health problems. T.F. died of lung cancer in 2015. J.F.,.. read more →
Following their divorce, the decedent, John Garay, and his ex-wife owned a parcel of real property as equal tenants in common. Upon John’s death, the property was owned equally by John’s estate and the ex-wife. The co-executors of John’s estate were two of the Garays’ thirteen children. In 2013, the property was sold to one.. read more →
R.K. transferred her one-third interest in a house she owned jointly with her daughter and son-in-law to her daughter. Less than five years later, R.S. applied for Medicaid, and asserted that the transfer was exempt under Medicaid’s “caregiver child” exception to the rules prohibiting any transfers of assets within five years of the Medicaid application.. read more →
Between April 2, 2018 and April 11, 2018, the New Jersey Superior Court, Appellate Division, issued six separate opinions involving Medicaid. While this is unusual, what is even more striking is that all six cases involve the same appellate court panel, and the same attorney representing each of the appellants. In these cases, the law.. read more →
A judge in Los Angeles ruled that a spouse in California is the presumptive healthcare decision-maker when there is no advance directive and the partner is in a persistent vegetative state. In re the Matter of Juan Fernando Romero, Patient, Case No. 16STPB06815 (Superior Ct., March 2, 2018). The case involved Juan Fernando Romero, who suffered.. read more →
Following Joan McBride’s death, her sons from her first marriage asserted claims against her second husband Charlie, who had served as Joan’s power of attorney and executor of her will. Joan and Charlie married in 1997 and remained married until Joan’s death in 2016. The sons claimed Charlie unduly influenced Joan in connection with certain.. read more →
Louis Acerra, the decedent, died at the age of 30 from injuries he suffered in a house fire. He survived more than two years after the fire before finally succumbing to those injuries. During those two years, he was cared for by Richard Litwin. Litwin had been in a relationship with the decedent’s mother when.. read more →
A court in Australia accepted an unsent, draft text message on a mobile phone as an official Last Will and Testament. Nichol v. Nichol The decedent, Mark Nichol, a 55 year old man, committed suicide in 2016. The decedent’s mobile phone was found on a work bench in the shed where the deceased’s body was found.. read more →
In 2005, Stuart and Phyllis Rauch purchased a nursing home facility through an LLC they formed. Their son Eric convinced them to hire his wife, Shan Chin, as a bookkeeper. The business suffered financial losses; by 2008, its net losses exceeded $585,000. In 2009, after losing his job at a law firm, Eric approached his.. read more →
This case arose from the conduct of siblings who held divergent views regarding placing their parents in a skilled care facility. The parties, two brothers and their sister, are the adult children of elderly parents. They grew up in New Jersey, but defendant brother moved to Long Island, NY, 36 years ago. Defendant’s younger brother,.. read more →
As 2007 began, Arthur Brown, who was then seventy-eight years old, and his wife, Mary, lived together in a jointly-owned condominium. Several months later, Arthur began living in an assisted living facility. The following year, Arthur was admitted into a nursing home after he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Soon thereafter, Arthur applied for nursing.. read more →
When he died in 2012, the decedent, retired physician Henry D. Rubenstein, left his insolvent estate to his second wife and her nephew. Although he and his second wife had a son, his will explicitly left no bequest to that son. The second wife claimed that the decedent’s extensive health problems had depleted the estate.. read more →
M.L. is the co-guardian and mother of C.L., a disabled 25-year old man with autism and epilepsy. C.L. lives with his parents in their home. He receives support and funding from the New Jersey Department of Human Services, Division of Developmental Disabilities (“DDD”) under their Self-Directed Services (“SDS”) program. Under the SDS program, he receives.. read more →
Reversing a federal district court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit ruled that a state housing authority cannot count distributions from a special needs trust as income in determining eligibility under the Section 8 housing voucher program. DeCambre v. Brookline Housing Authority (1st Cir., Nos. 15-1458, 15-1515, June 14, 2016). Kimberly DeCambre, a disabled,.. read more →
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