Ferrugia v. New York State Department of Health

Wisner and Scudder, JJ. (dissenting).

We respectfully dissent. In our view, Supreme Court should have granted the CPLR article 78 petition seeking to annul the determination denying petitioner’s application for Medicaid benefits, and thus we vote to reverse. In denying the application, respondent Chautauqua County Department of Social Services (DSS) determined that the principal of an irrevocable trust established by petitioner in 1986 was an available resource for purposes of determining petitioner’s eligibility for those benefits. The trust, by its terms, had terminated upon petitioner’s…