James Thomas Gheen and Edward Dale Gheen v. State of Wyoming, Ex Rel., Department of Health, Division of Healthcare Financing/Equalitycare

2014 WY 70, 326 P.3d 918, 2014 WL 2440473, 2014 Wyo. LEXIS 75
CourtWyoming Supreme Court
DecidedMay 30, 2014
DocketS-13-0159
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 2014 WY 70 (James Thomas Gheen and Edward Dale Gheen v. State of Wyoming, Ex Rel., Department of Health, Division of Healthcare Financing/Equalitycare) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Wyoming Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
James Thomas Gheen and Edward Dale Gheen v. State of Wyoming, Ex Rel., Department of Health, Division of Healthcare Financing/Equalitycare, 2014 WY 70, 326 P.3d 918, 2014 WL 2440473, 2014 Wyo. LEXIS 75 (Wyo. 2014).

Opinion

KITE, Chief Justice.

[¶1] The State of Wyoming, ex rel. Department of Health, Division of Healthcare Financing/Equalityeare (the Department) filed a lien against two properties to recover the cost of Medicaid benefits paid on behalf of Peggy (Gheen. Mrs. Gheen's sons, James and Edward CGheen (hereinafter "Gheen sons"), filed a petition to remove a false lien and quiet title, claiming they were the rightful owners of the properties pursuant to quitclaim deeds recorded after their mother's death. The district court granted summary judgment in favor of the Department, ruling that under the relevant federal and state laws, the lien was appropriate. 1 The Gheen sons appealed.

[¶2] We affirm.

ISSUES

[¶3] The Gheen sons present the following issues on appeal:

I. Whether the district court had subject matter jurisdiction to determine sua sponte the validity of the quitclaim deeds transferring property to [the Gheen sons] when [the Department] lack[ed] standing to question the grantor's donative intent at the time of due execution of the conveying deeds, or in the alternative whether it erred as a matter of law by nullifying two uncontested quitclaim deeds.
II. Whether the remedial provisions of Wyo. Stat. Ann. § 29-1-601(b) may be invoked against [the Department] as claimant on the legally groundless and impermiss[ifble recorded claim of lien against property known to belong to [the Gheen sons], as individuals against whom [the Department] has] . no rights to recover, as a matter of public record. ‘

The Department states the issues as:

I. Federal and state law require [the Department] to seek reimbursement from the real and personal property in which an individual had any legal title or interest at the time of death in *921 order to recover amounts paid for medical assistance. - [The Department] provided medical assistance to Peggy (Gheen during the last three months of her life. After Mrs. Gheen died{,] [the Department] placed a lien on two parcels of land in which Ms. Gheen had an interest.
Ms. Gheen's sons brought a petition to remove the lien claiming it was false or frivolous because they had recorded deeds which they found after their mother died. Although the deeds were dated in 2006, they were not delivered to the Gheen [sons], the Gheen [sons] did not know of them until after their mother's death, and they were not recorded until 2011.
Did the district court correctly rule that, as a matter of law, there had been no conveyance of the property in 2006 and that [the Department] could record a lien against it?
II. Wyoming's prohibition against frivolous liens invalidates liens filed against the property of a government official based on that official's performance or nonperformance of official duties. Did the district court correctly determine that this statute does not apply to a lien filed by [the Department] against Ms. Gheen's property and correctly dismiss the Petition to Remove False Claim filed pursuant to Wyoming Statute § 29-1-601(b)? 2

FACTS

[¶4] This matter involves two Goshen County, Wyoming propertiese-a residence and a farm. Dale Gheen, who was Mrs. (Gheen's husband and the heen sons' father, passed away in 2001. Mr. and Mrs. Gheen owned the residential property as tenants by the entireties, and after Mr. Gheen's death, Mrs. Gheen filed an affidavit stating she was the sole owner pursuant to her right of sur-vivorship. The farm property was distributed through Mr. Gheen's intestacy proceedings, with an undivided one-half distributed to Mrs. (GGheen and an undivided one-quarter interest to each of the Gheen sons. Mrs. Gheen executed quitclaim deeds for her interests in the residential and farm properties to the sons and they were notarized on December 29, 2006. She did not, however, inform her sons about the deeds or record them.

[¶5] On May 4, 2010, James (heen applied for Medicaid benefits on behalf of Mrs. Gheen. In the application, he indicated that Mrs. Gheen owned the residential property and an interest in the farm property. The Department approved Mrs. CGheen's application, and she received $10,508.54 in Medicaid benefits before she passed away on August 1, 2010.

[¶6] The Gheen sons discovered the quitclaim deeds in Mrs. Gheen's personal papers after her death,. On the advice of their attorney, they recorded the deeds on March 1, 2011, effectively avoiding probate of their mother's real property interests. On May 19, 2011, the Department filed a lien against both properties.

[¶7] The parties corresponded over the next several months about the effect of the quitclaim deeds on the Department's lien. The Department eventually took the position that Mrs. Gheen owned an interest in the properties at the time of her death, which was subject to the Medicaid lien. On July 11, 2012, the Gheen sons filed a petition to remove false lien under Wyo. Stat. Ann. § 29-1-601 (LexisNexis 2011). In general, they asserted the Department's lien was false because they owned the properties pursuant to the quitclaim deeds and they did not owe any debt to the Department. The Gheen sons claimed they were entitled to removal of the lien, statutory damages and attorney fees.

[¶8] The Department answered asserting the lien was valid and § 29-1-601 did not apply to Medicaid liens. The Gheen sons moved to amend their petition to clarify that their action was to quiet title in the properties as supplemented by the damages provisions of § 29-1-601. The district court granted the motion to amend.

*922 [¶9] The Department filed a motion for summary judgment asserting its lien was proper because Mrs. Gheen owned the properties at the time of her death and the quitclaim deeds were not valid conveyances. The Gheen sons filed a cross motion for summary judgment, claiming the deeds were valid, their mother did not own any interest in the properties at the time of her death, and the Department did not take appropriate action to have the deeds declared void. They also asserted that, regardless of the efficacy of the deeds, they owned an undivided one-half interest in the farm property as a result of their inheritance from their father and it could not be encumbered by the Department's lien.

[¶10] The district court held a hearing on the competing summary judgment motions on January 2, 2018. On April 18, 2013, the district court granted the Department's motion for summary judgment declaring its lien valid as to Mrs. Gheen's residence and one-half interest in the farm property. It also granted the Gheen sons' motion to quiet title and declared the Department's lien did not apply to their undivided one-half interest in the farm property. The CGheen sons appealed.

STANDARD OF REVIEW

[¶11] A district court's summary judgment order is reviewed de novo, using the same materials and following the same standards as the district court. Michael's Constr., Inc. v. American Nat'l Bank, 2012 WY 76, ¶ 8, 278 P.3d 701, 703-04 (Wyo.2012); Grynberg v. L & R Exploration Venture, 2011 WY 134, ¶ 16, 261 P.3d 731, 736 (Wyo.2011). W.R.C.P. 56(c) allows summary judgments when

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2014 WY 70, 326 P.3d 918, 2014 WL 2440473, 2014 Wyo. LEXIS 75, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/james-thomas-gheen-and-edward-dale-gheen-v-state-of-wyoming-ex-rel-wyo-2014.