MHL ARTICLE 81 - New York State Unified Court System

transfer of additional assets that might leave him dependent upon others outside the jurisdiction of
the court to pay for his care. The court stated that these funds, which were damages in the medical
malpractice action, were for the IP’s future care and should remain in a vehicle established for his
benefit and suggested that the guardians consider establishing an SNT.
Matter of Iris W., 1/24/08, NYLJ 37, (col. 2) (Surr Ct., Bronx Cty) (Surr. Holzman)
Guardian petitioned for authority to transfer the proceeds of his ward’s medical malpractice action
into a pooled trust (NYSARC Community Trust I Master Trust) and to seek reimbursement from
these settlement proceeds for his payment of funeral expenses for the ward’s mother, substantial
expenditures he voluntarily made on behalf of the ward for many years and approval of attorney fees
and disbursement made in connection with this application. The court granted the authorization to
transfer the funds to the pooled trust, sought attorney fees and approved the request for
reimbursement to the extent that it would have approved same if authorization had been requested
prospectively.
Matter of Anna P., 16 Misc 3d 988; 841 N.Y.S.2d 730 (Surr Ct., Bronx Cty., 2007) (Surr.
Holzman)
Petitioner guardian petitioned to withdraw the entire balance of the settlement proceeds on deposit
in a ward's guardianship account in order to settle and voluntarily pay a claim by the New York State
Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities (OMRDD) for non-Medicaid covered
expenses provided to the ward.. OMRDD indicated that if the guardian voluntarily paid the amount
owed on its claim, then it would defer processing 90% of that payment and deposit those funds for
the benefit of the ward in a master trust. The guardian would then act as a liaison with the New York
State Association of Retarded Citizens, Inc. (NYSARC) and make payment requests for non-
Medicaid covered expenses through the NYSARC trustees. The court found that OMRDD had the
discretion to defer and possibly discount the funds that it could recover in litigation in exchange for
saving the litigation expenses by the voluntary transfer of the funds to it, to be used by the NYSARC.
Therefore, granting the petition was in the ward's best interests because (1) the ward would not lose
her Medicaid eligibility because there will no longer be any funds on deposit in the guardianship
account for her benefit; and (2) her non-Medicaid covered expenses can be paid by the trust,
deferring the balance owed to OMRDD, to be paid, in whole or in part, from any funds remaining
in the trust upon Anna's death.
Chambers v. Jain, 4/20/07 N.Y.L.J, 24 (col. 1)(Sup. Ct., Queens Cty. 2007)(Agate, J.)
The Court that presided over a med mal case and related infant's compromise proceeding applies the
formula set forth in Ahlborn and adopted by NY in Lugo. It determined the total value of the
damages, then determined the ratio between the total damages and the amount of the settlement and
then applied that ratio to the full Medicaid lien to determine the amount of the lien that can be
satisfied.
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