Link v. Town of Smithtown

162 Misc. 2d 587
New York Supreme Court·Decided November 17, 1994·Published·Cited by 3 cases

Opinion

OPINION OF THE COURT

Frank S. Rossetti, J.

Motion by petitioner for (a) reargument of its application for enforcement of its lien and (b) resettlement of the court’s order entered thereon. Reargument is granted, but, upon reargument, the court’s prior determination is adhered to, and resettlement is granted, in accordance with the following.

The instant motion relates to the court’s decision and order of August 15, 1994 wherein enforcement of the lien of movant Suffolk County Department of Social Services (DSS) was denied in toto. (See, Matter of Gibson, 162 Misc 2d 530 [Sup Ct, Nassau County, Rossetti, J.].) DSS requests reargument on the grounds: (1) reanalysis of the relationship between Social Services Law §§ 104 and 104-b, and of the decisions interpret[589]*589ing it (i.e., Matter of Thurston v Durose, 76 NY2d 683; Baker v Sterling, 39 NY2d 397), requires that the lien be enforced in full; and (2) analysis of one of the effective dates of the seminal Federal legislation on supplemental needs trusts (SNTs) (i.e., the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993 [OBRA '93], Pub L 103-66, § 13611 [b], 107 US Stat 624, 625) requires pro rata enforcement of said lien up to said date. Under the first ground, DSS is basically contending that the court misapprehended the law as it relates to Social Services Law § 104-b. Under the second, it is essentially claiming the court overlooked supposedly controlling law. Given these claims of misapplication and overlooking of alleged apposite law, we deem it an appropriate exercise of the court’s discretion to grant reargument. (See generally, 2 Carmody-Wait 2d, NY Prac § 8.75, at 400-401, 403; 2A Weinstein-Korn-Miller, NY Civ Prac ¶ 2221.04, at 22-137 — 22-138.)

Briefly stated, DSS’ first argument runs as follows. Social Services Law § 104 provides a right of recovery for past medical assistance against various forms of property and Social Services Law § 104-b provides an additional lien remedy against one of those forms, to wit, the proceeds of a personal injury action.1 Prior to the 1993 enactment of Social Services Law § 104 (3), the right of recovery under section 104 extended to trust funds, and while said 1993 amendment exempted third-party SNTs therefrom, it continued the right of recovery against self-settled ones (see, Matter of Gibson, supra, at 533). OBRA '93 then ended recovery against even SNTs funded with a recipient’s assets, but this had no effect on the form of property covered by the Social Services Law § 104-b lien. In other words, while OBRA '93 may have ended section 104 recoveries against the form of property known as SNT assets, it did not affect the right of recovery against the other form of property known as personal injury action proceeds. Therefore, until such proceeds are actually converted to said exempt trust assets, they are not exempt from recovery under Social Services Law § 104 and thus are subject to a lien under Social Services Law § 104-b.

This argument may have facial appeal, but it is essentially a technical, semantical one which ignores the overriding [590]*590intent and purpose of OBRA '93 and the implementing State legislation. That intent and purpose is to allow trusts to be used to supplement the needs of disabled persons without adverse Medicaid consequences, but with the potential for full Medicaid reimbursement. (See, Matter of Gibson, supra, at 536-537.) DSS’ argument in effect says "yes, you can have such a trust, but no, you cannot have the assets to fund it with.”2 The practical effect of such a construction is to render the intent to benefit disabled recipients ineffective in many cases (see, n 2, supra) and thereby unreasonably and unequally work injustice. (See, McKinney’s Cons Laws of NY, Book 1, Statutes §§ 143-144, 146-147; 97 NY Jur 2d, Statutes, §§ 185-186, 188-189; see also, Matter of Gibson, supra, at 537.) It may well be that Congress did not specifically consider personal injury actions and liens thereon in enacting the Federal SNT exemption, but there is no doubt the State Legislature did so in developing the implementing State legislation (see, Matter of Gibson, supra). The result of that consideration was the removal of provisions that would have required the satisfaction of liens before the establishment of SNTs (see, supra). As indicated in the original Gibson decision, prior to OBRA '93 the establishment of SNTs was proscribed as an improper transfer of assets, under Federal 42 USC § 1396p (c) and State Social Services Law § 366 (5) (a), (c). (See, Matter of Gibson, supra, at 533.) Both these sections were amended as part of the respective SNT amendments to exempt transfers to SNTs from being Medicaid disqualifying events. (See, 42 USC § 1396p [c] [2] [B] [iv]; Social Services Law § 366 [5] [d] [3] [ii] [D].) It is thus that the establishment of SNTs is specifically made exempt and hence that the transfer of assets which would otherwise be disqualifying is statutorily authorized. By parity of reasoning, the establishment of such a trust by a transfer of assets which would otherwise be subject to a lien is also exempt and statutorily authorized. We therefore find DSS’ first argument contrary to the evidenced legislative intent.

Under this argument DSS also cites Gromalski v County of Nassau (204 AD2d 391 [2d Dept 1994]) for the proposition that [591]*591parties may not consciously structure a settlement to frustrate a DSS lien. However, that case is factually inapposite since it involved the question of whether the settlement of an infant’s claim (cf., Matter of Thurston v Durose, supra, at 686-687) intentionally allocated damages so as to eliminate or minimize those attributable to medical expenses (cf., Pang v Maimonides Med. Ctr.-Maimonides Hosp., 127 AD2d 641, 642). More importantly, the settlement there preceded the State statute on SNTs (i.e., EPTL 7-1.12), and OBRA '93 and the State implementing legislation (i.e., L 1994, ch 170, §§ 449-454, 564 [57]), and thus, unlike this case, the potential "structuring” there was not specifically authorized by statute. Clearly, a court-ordered transfer to a court-approved and statutorily warranted trust is not an artificial scheme designed to defraud (cf., Pang v Maimonides Med. Ctr.Maimonides Hosp., supra). We therefore find Gromalski unsupportive of DSS’ first argument and immaterial to the application at issue.

DSS’ second argument involves one of the effective dates specified in OBRA '93. The Federal amendment section containing the subject SNT exemption closes with the following effective date provisions:

"(e) effective dates. — (1) The amendments made by this section shall apply, except as provided in this subsection, to payments under [Medicaid] for calendar quarters beginning on or after October 1, 1993, without regard to whether or not final regulations to carry out such amendments have been promulgated by such date.
"(2) The amendments made by this section shall not apply—
"(A) to medical assistance provided for services furnished before October 1, 1993,
"(B) with respect to assets disposed of on or before the date of the enactment of this Act,[3] or

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Link v. Town of Smithtown, 162 Misc. 2d 587 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1994).

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