MHL ARTICLE 81 - New York State Unified Court System

Estate of Tauba Korn, 3/9/2010, NYLJ 45 (col. 1) Surr. Ct. Kings Cty. (Surr. Lopez-Torres)
A testator left her real and personal property to her daughter and brother except for a specific
bequest of $50,000 which she left to her disabled son to be placed into an SNT for him. The
residuary was to go to her daughter and brother. She did not provide for the contingency that her
daughter and brother would predecease her and thus, when they did, the residuary passed via
intestacy to her son, but, by the terms of the Will passed outside the SNT and would thus have had
the effect of disqualifying him for public benefits. The Surrogate permitted the trust to be reformed
to include both the original $50,000 and the residue of the estate since it was clear that this result
was the testator's intent.
Matter of Hector S., 11/18/09 NYLJ, 33 (col. 3) (Surr. Ct. Bronx Cty. 2009) (Surr. Holzman)
Upon learning of funds in a Willowbrook class consumer's guardianship account, OMRDD sought,
pursuant to the Willowbrook decree, a declaration of incorrectly paid Medicaid, to have half of those
funds used to repay the debt to Medicaid and to have the other half placed into an SNT-like
arrangements for the consumer's benefit. The court approved the application.
Matter of Robert Miller, 20 Misc.3d 1111A, 867 N.Y.S. 2d 376 (Sup. Ct. Queens Cty. 2008)
(Thomas, J.)
Court permits nunc pro tunc establishment of a first party SNT to the date that the then incapacitated
IP initially entered a hospital, which had the effect of rendering him Medicaid eligible as of that
earlier date, stating: “[The IP] was clearly entitled to a judgement which contained a properly
established SNT. Such judgment would have been timely established but for his incapacity in 2005
and the failure by the city to request such relief in its petition which would have been immediately
granted in the Order to Show Cause commencing the proceeding and, if authorized, the guardian
would have acted prior to the critical date.”
m. Payback to State
Matter of Grillo, 2008 NY Slip Op 30532U; 2008 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 7987(Sup. Ct. Nassau
Cty.) (Riordan, J.)
Upon the death of the beneficiary of an SNT, DSS made claim against the remainder in the trust for
all Medicaid expended both before and after the creation of the trust. The estate administrator
opposed paying back the Medicaid payments made before the trust had been created. The court held
that the trust itself stated, that Medicaid should be paid “the total Medicaid assistance provided to
the beneficiary during his lifetime" and that pursuant to 42 USC 1396p [d] [4][A] and NY SSL 366
[2] [b] [2] [iii] the full amount expended, both before and after the creation of the trust, must be
repaid.
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