Ohio Dept. of Medicaid v. French

Citations

• 154 N.E.3d 426
• 2020 Ohio 2744

Syllabus

Husband and wife, who are now deceased, entered into an agreement with a retirement community pursuant to which they made an original deposit in the amount of $108,400. Wife predeceased husband. After husband's death, the value of his estate included $48,780 attributable to a refund paid by the retirement community from the couple's original deposit. Pursuant to the definition of \estate\ in R.C. 5162.21(A)(1)(b) (non-probate assets), as well as the definition of \time of death\ in R.C. 5162.21(A)(5), wife's ownership interest in her half of the refund was not extinguished by her death and endured post-mortem. Accordingly, it was a quantifiable non-probate asset which the Ohiio Department of Medicaid (ODM) was entitled to recover from husband's estate pursuant to a properly filed estate recovery claim for Medicaid medical assistance benefits previously paid on behalf of wife. The trial court properly granted summary judgment in favor of ODM. Judgment affirmed.