Murphy's Estate v. State Dept. of Public Welfare

• Decision Date: 09 June 1972
• Docket Number: No. 42736,42736
• Citation: 198 N.W.2d 570,293 Minn. 298
• Parties: In re ESTATE of Jennie MURPHY, Deceased, Appellant, v. STATE of Minnesota, DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WELFARE, Respondent.
• Court: Minnesota Supreme Court

Page 570

198 N.W.2d 570

293 Minn. 298

In re ESTATE of Jennie MURPHY, Deceased, Appellant, v. STATE of Minnesota, DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WELFARE, Respondent.

No. 42736.

Supreme Court of Minnesota.

June 9, 1972.

Syllabus by the Court

1. Minn.St.1967, § 246.53, (L.1959, c. 578, § 4, effective April 24, 1959), requiring the commissioner of public welfare to file a claim against the estate of a deceased former patient of a state hospital for the mentally ill for the total cost of care given the patient, creates a new cause of action which accrues upon the patient's death.

2. It was not intended that § 246.53 be applied retroactively.

3. No part of the state's claim for the total unpaid hospital care costs of decedent filed against her estate is barred by the statute of limitations, but recovery is limited to costs incurred subsequent to April 24, 1959.

Kelly & Finley, St. Paul, for appellant.

Warren Spannaus, Atty. Gen., John M. Mason, Sol. Gen., Judy L. Oakes, Asst. Atty. Gen., St. Paul, for respondent.

Harry H. Peterson, Minneapolis, for Samuel Smilow, Admr. of Estate of Ernest Larson, amicus curiae.

Heard before KNUTSON, C.J., and MURPHY, ROGOSHESKE, and PETERSON, JJ.

OPINION

ROGOSHESKE, Justice.

This is an appeal by the executor of the estate of Jennie Murphy, decedent, from a judgment of the district court determining that the Department of Public Welfare was entitled to recover $8,753.52 from decedent's estate, pursuant to Minn.St.1967, § 246.53, for the cost of hospital care rendered to her while she was a patient at the Hastings State Hospital for the mentally ill from September 19, 1957, to July 13, 1966.

We affirm the order of the district court except to exclude recovery by the state for the period from September 19, 1957, to April 24, 1959, on the ground that although § 246.53 (L.1959, c. 578, § 4) created a new cause of action for recovery of the cost of such care upon the death of the patient, it was not intended at the time of its enactment that § 246.53 be applied retroactively.

Decedent was committed as mentally ill to the Hastings State Hospital on September 19, 1957. Except for three relatively brief intermittent periods, she remained hospitalized until July 13, 1966. Shortly after her commitment, she was represented by duly appointed successive guardians of her person and estate. The average per capita cost of her hospital care for the period of her commitment totaled $16,771.07. The state commenced monthly billing of decedent's guardians for these costs from July 1, 1961, upon 'determination orders' made pursuant to Minn.St.1967, § 246.51, and issued by the commissioner of public welfare. The last bill received was dated December 31, 1968. In response to these statements, the decedent's successive guardians made periodic payments between 1961 and 1968 totaling $8,017.55. The decedent died on July 7, 1968. On January 31, 1969, the state filed its claim in probate court for $9,213.52 representing unpaid hospital costs which had accrued between 1957 and 1966. The claim was allowed in the amended amount of $8,753.52 by the probate court, and upon appeal this allowance was upheld by the district court after a trial de novo. ¹

As enacted in 1959, Minn.St.1967, §§ 246.52 and 246.53, read (L.1959, c. 578, §§ 3, 4):

'Sec. 3. (246.52) The commissioner shall issue an order to the patient or the guardian of his estate, if there be one, and relatives determined able to pay requiring them to pay monthly to the State of Minnesota the amounts so determined the total of which shall not exceed the full cost of care. Such order shall specifically state the commissioner's determination (and) shall be conclusive unless appealed from as herein provided. When a patient or relative fails to pay the amount due hereunder the attorney general, upon request of the commissioner, may institute, or direct the appropriate county attorney to institute, civil action to recover such amount.

'Sec. 4. (246.53) Upon the death of a patient, or a former patient, the total cost of care given him, less the amount actually paid toward the cost of such care by the patient and his relatives, shall be filed by the commissioner as a claim against the estate of such patient with the court having jurisdiction to probate the estate and all proceeds collected by the state in such case shall be divided between the state and county in proportion to the cost of care each has borne. If the commissioner of public welfare shall determine that the property or estate of any such patient is not sufficient to more than care for and maintain the wife and minor or dependent children of such deceased patient, he shall have the power to compromise the claim of the state in such manner as he, in his judgment and upon investigation, may deem just and proper.' ²

The executor admits decedent's estate is liable under § 246.53 for the balance of unpaid hospital care costs for the July 1, 1961, to July 13, 1966, period for which monthly bills were submitted to the successive guardians. He contends, however, that the 6-year statute of limitations provided by Minn.St. 541.05 bars the state from collecting the cost of care prior to July 1, 1961. ³ As we understand, he argues that §§ 246.52 and 246.53 as enacted in 1959 established a statutory plan which requires the state to make monthly determination orders to toll the statute of limitations for any charges subsequently sought in a claim against the estate of the deceased patient for the cost of care rendered more than 6 years prior to her death. The state's position is that its claim for the unpaid cost of care rendered more than 6 years prior to the death of the decedent is not barred by the statute of limitations because § 246.53 created a new cause of action in the state which accrues upon the death of decedent. A careful reading of § 246.53 and L.1959, c. 578, of which it is a part, considered in the light of the legislative history of prior statutes providing for the recovery of state hospital care and the underlying policies prompting the enactment of the 1959 statutory scheme, compels us to agree with the state, except to limit recovery to the balance of the total cost of defendant's care incurred after April 24, 1959, when § 246.53, as a part of L.1959, c. 578, became effective.

In Minnesota there is not now, nor has there been, any recognized common-law right of the state to collect the cost of hospital care for the mentally ill from a patient, his spouse, or relatives during his lifetime or from his estate after death. See, State ex rel. Hilton v. Probate Court, 142 Minn. 283, 171 N.W. 928 (1919). In 1917, the Minnesota Legislature first formulated a statutory scheme whereby the state could seek reimbursement for such care. L.1917, c. 294, and primarily § 4 thereof, provided for state reimbursement to the extent of $10 a month from the exempt property or estate of the patient during his lifetime and secondarily from the patient's spouse, children, and parents. ⁴ In a separate enactment, the legislature, again for the first time in the state's history, also permitted the state to file a claim against the estate upon the death of the patient who leaves no surviving spouse, children, grandchildren, or parents. The claim was limited to $10 a month for the time the patient received care in a state mental hospital. L.1917, c. 409. ⁵ In 1929, the attorney general ruled that L.1917, c. 294, gave the state a cause of action accruing as the maintenance and care was rendered. Further, he ruled that since the statute of limitations applied to monthly claims under c. 294 and because cc. 294 and 409 provided identical relief, the two chapters were to be construed together, thus barring any probate claim filed pursuant to c. 409 which was over 6 years old. Opinion Attorney General, No. 248--a--1, Nov. 18, 1929. Essentially, it is the executor's argument in this case that Minn.St.1967, §§ 246.52 and 246.53, are statutory descendants of L.1917, cc. 294 and 409, and therefore the attorney general's rationale in 1929 is persausive authority for what the legislature has always intended by these statutory provisions since their initial enactment in 1917. We cannot agree.

In 1931, c. 294, § 4, was amended and the scope of recovery against the patient's property or estate while he was an inmate was expanded from $10 per month to recovery for the per capita cost of the patient's care if he had no dependents. ⁶ The sole purpose of this amendment was to increase potential reimbursement to the state when the patient's property or estate was not required to support a family while he was hospitalized. Chapters 294 and 409 coexisted until 1943, when Mason St.1927, § 8833, a continuation of c. 409, § 1, was repealed by L.1943, c. 636. Thus, from 1943 until 1959, the state had no explicit statutory claim against the estate of a former patient upon death. ⁷

L.1917, c. 294, as amended, was coded as part of the general Probate Code provisions in Minn,.st.1945, c. 526, § 4 of c. 294 becoming Minn.St.1945, § 526.01, ⁸ and § 6 of c. 294, which allowed the state to sue the patient's estate or relatives from whom the director of public institutions had demanded payment, becoming § 526.03. These provisions were in effect when the decedent, Jennie Murphy, entered the hospital in 1957, and as the statutory predecessors indicated, § 526.01 and § 526.03 were intended to promote and afford state recovery of hospital costs during the life of the patient.

In 1959 with the enactment of §§ 246.50 to 246.55 and the repeal of §§ 526.01 to 526.07, the legislature established a new and more precise statutory mechanism through which reimbursement for the total cost of care can be recovered. ⁹ Certainly the new statutory scheme goes beyond being a mere reenactment of § 526.01. Under §§ 246.52 and 246.53, the state now has two distinct causes of action. Section 246.52 gives the commissioner of public welfare the right to...