A recent Massachusetts land court ruling is instructive regarding the extent to which states will go in attempting to collect resources for Medicaid.
Athena and Sotirios Koutoukis hired an attorney to transfer ownership of their real estate to their daughters, creating and retaining a life estate for their benefit. They also retained a power of appointment to convey the property to their children. Mr. Koutoukis received MassHealth (Medicaid) benefits before he died. After Mr. Koutoukis’s death, the attorney for the estate discovered that the deed included the words “tenants in common for life and further,” which was an error.
On a motion for summary judgment, the nonmoving party cannot create a dispute of material fact simply by declaring that it disputes the material fact. The nonmoving party is supposed to provide some evidence that disputes the fact; that is, some evidence that, if credited, would support the opposite of the claimed undisputed fact. On these cross-motions for summary judgment, the defendant Secretary of the Executive Office of Health and Human Services (EOHHS) has attempted to forestall summary judgment on the plaintiffs’ claim for reformation of a deed due to a scrivener’s error by the simple expedient of saying the affidavits provided by the plaintiffs do not support the claim, without providing any evidence of its own to the contrary.
As the affidavits do support the claim for reformation, there is no dispute of material fact. Based on the undisputed material facts and the applicable law, summary judgment shall enter reforming the subject deed to clarify that the parties’ intent was to create a life estate, and declaring that the life estate and the limited power of appointment in the deed do not make the subject property a
The court noted that state "has denied many of the asserted facts relating to the claim of scrivener’s error in the subject deed without providing any affidavits or other evidence whatsoever."Estate of Koutoukis, at p. 4.
The court concluded that the state cannot recoup Medicaid benefits from a Medicaid recipient’s property, left in a life estate notwithstanding a scrivener’s error, and a limited power of appointment. Estate of Koutoukis v. Secretary of the Executive Office of Health and Human Services (Mass. Land Ct., Dept. of the Trial Ct., No. 20 MISC 000004 (RBF), Sept. 17, 2021).
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