Boer v. University Specialty Hospital

JOHN C. ELDRIDGE (Retired, Specially Assigned), J., dissenting, in which BELL, C.J., and BATTAGLIA, J., join. I dissent. While I agree with the majority’s conclusion that the Court of Special Appeals erred by determining that a person’s bodily presence in a particular county served as the main qualification for residency in that county, I believe that the majority opinion makes factual findings not supported by the record and fails to offer any instructive guidance regarding the criteria to determine what is a county of residence under Maryland Code (1974, 2011 Repl.Vol.), § 8-104(c) of the Estates and Trusts Article. Section 8-104(c) provides, inter alia, as follows (emphasis added): “If the claim is filed prior to the appointment of the personal representative, the claimant may file his claim with the register in the county in which the decedent was domiciled or in any county in which he resided on the date of his death .... ” Maryland Rule 6-413(a) contains essentially the same provision.

The dispositive issue in this case concerns the meaning of the word “resided” in § 8-104(c) and Rule 6-413(a). The majority opinion states that the “relevant facts are undisputed” in this case, but then proceeds to make a variety ⁵⁴² of assertions that are either not supported by the record or are contrary to findings made by the Circuit Court for Baltimore County. As stated in the majority opinion, the decedent, Dorothy C. Faya, lived most of her life at 606 Stoney Lane, Catonsville, in Baltimore County, where she owned her home. She suffered a fall which led to her hospitalization at St. Agnes Hospital in Baltimore City, from November 29, 2002, until December 21, 2002, when she was transferred to the respondent, University Specialty Hospital, a chronic care facility in Baltimore City.

From that time until her death on November 21, 2003, Dorothy Faya was on several occasions transferred to other Baltimore City hospitals when she required services not available at University Specialty Hospital. Each time Dorothy Faya was transferred to another hospital, she was officially discharged from University Specialty Hospital, and there was always the chance that she would not later have been re-admitted. In hindsight, the majority opinion argues that the fact that Ms. Faya was officially discharged “has no significance” because, in the end, she always returned to University Specialty Hospital. This position, however, overlooks the fact that her return to University Specialty Hospital was never guaranteed after her discharge. 1 For every re-admission, she was assigned a new patient number.

Her bed at the facility was not saved while she was away, but instead, her belongings were placed in a box and “put ... downstairs in the office ... [to] keep ... in case she came ⁵⁴³ back.” Had University Specialty Hospital been fully occupied when she returned, she would not have been re-admitted. As the representative explained, “Only nursing homes have bed holds, not chronic [care hospitals.]” The majority opinion also treats as a foregone conclusion that Dorothy Faya was never going to return to her home in Catonsville and advises lower courts to consider whether a “person actually might be able or expected to return to his or her former residence or place of domicile” (emphasis in original). In the present case, however, what was “actually” going to happen to Ms. Faya was unknown at time. Neither her physicians nor Ms. Faya herself ever concluded that she would be unable to leave University Specialty Hospital.

The record before this Court clearly indicates that Dorothy Faya always intended to return home, and the hospital was well aware of this intent. She was competent during the period of hospitalizations, and the Circuit Court, reviewing the evidence firsthand, found that, for a variety of reasons, her only residence was her Catonsville house, which had remained unoccupied the entire time she was hospitalized. Although Ms. Faya’s ultimate discharge plan was uncertain, 2 the physician progress notes tracking Dorothy Faya’s health at University Specialty Hospital indicated that she had shown “great improvement since her admission” and that she was often “feeling really fine and she [did] not have any ... discomfort.” 3 She could “move[ ] ... all four limbs fairly well” and “sit[ ] comfortably in the chair by the side of the ⁵⁴⁴ bed” offering “no complaints....” The hospital staff assisted her “getting range of motion by restorative nursing.” Although she remained on a ventilator and a gastric feeding tube during her stay at University Specialty Hospital, the record is silent as to whether her conditions would sufficiently improve so that she could return home or be transferred to a nursing facility. Ms. Faya’s actual cause of death is another issue obscured in the majority opinion, which states that “[s]he did not die prematurely while in the course of recovery.” However, the record is actually silent on the ultimate Cause and location of her death.

Ms. Faya’s hospital records show that staff at University Specialty Hospital commenced cardiopulmonary resuscitation on her and that she was then “sent out [to] 911 to the acute where she was unable to be resuscitated.” A separate report notes that she was “transferred via 911” to “UMMS.” However, where she was sent, what caused her death, and where she ultimately died is not disclosed in the record. The doctors treating Ms. Faya never gave her the prognosis that the majority opinion now sees fit to pronounce, that Ms. Faya “obviously could not return home.” Ms. Faya was receiving treatment at University Specialty Hospital and, according to her physician’s progress notes, was doing quite well. The simple fact is, at the time, no one knew what the outcome of Ms. Faya’s care would be. It is unreasonable, as well as a violation of Maryland Rule 8-131(c), 4 for this Court now to make findings of historical facts concerning matters which, at the time, no one knew the outcome and which the Circuit Court record does not reveal. ⁵⁴⁵ The majority opinion stresses that if § 8-104 of the Estates and Trusts Article “is to have real meaning, residency must be reasonably capable of determination by the creditor.” (Emphasis in original).

I agree that creditors, both medical providers and others alike, should be able to ascertain the residency of the decedent. Unfortunately, the majority opinion only offers confusion where more clarity is needed. There are no guidelines established by the majority’s opinion regarding what criteria this Court, the lower courts, or creditors should employ to determine an individual’s residency. The majority’s decision in this case hinges on the rather amorphous condition of “whether, or when, [a] person actually might be able or expected to return to his or her former residence or place of domicile” (emphasis in original) rather than being based on objective criteria previously applied by this Court to evaluate residency, such as mailing address, location of personal possessions, and documentary records.

Foremost among the undefined criteria in the majority’s opinion is what comprises the difference between a long-term residential stay at a hospital and a shorter, non-residential stay. As a starting point, the majority opinion fails to point out that the Hospital was, at all times, aware that the decedent’s home was in Baltimore County, as most of her hospital paperwork noted her residence as 606 Stoney Lane in Catonsville. Creditors did not need to conduct an extensive search for Ms. Faya’s home address, as the majority opinion implies, and her home address was in no way obscured from possible creditors. The majority opinion espouses concern that creditors will be unable to locate the proper venue for filing their claims, but in this case, it could not have been clearer that the most appropriate venue was the county where her home was located and where the majority of hospital records indicated she resided, Baltimore County.

This case presents a simple matter of a creditor filing in the wrong county and not correcting its mistake until the time for filing expired. Rather than taking the optimal course of action and filing a claim in the county where the decedent’s ⁵⁴⁶ home was located, University Specialty Hospital, on December 10, 2003, less than a month after Ms. Faya’s death and prior to the decedent’s estate being opened, filed a claim with the office of the Register of Wills for Baltimore City, where the Hospital itself was located, in the amount of $210,028.26, although the actual balance of the decedent’s hospital bill was $206,343.12. Not until October 1, 2004, did University Specialty Hospital file a second claim in Baltimore County, where Ms. Faya’s home was located. This second claim was filed after the sixth month limitation period for filing claims specified by § 8-103 of the Estates and Trusts Article. 5 Because the second claim filed in Baltimore County was late and, therefore, barred, University Specialty Hospital was forced to rely on its first claim and accordingly, brought the suit now before this Court, advancing the novel argument that Dorothy Faya “resided” in Baltimore City because of her hospital stay.

At the conclusion of its proceedings, the Circuit Court denied University Specialty Hospital’s claim, finding that the decedent did not reside in Baltimore City on the date of her death. The court, while acknowledging a legal distinction between a residence and domicile, nonetheless found that the decedent’s only residence on the date she died was at 606 Stoney Lane, Catonsville, in Baltimore County, which was also her domicile. The court reviewed the facts that had been complied during the hearing and noted that it was “uncontro ⁵⁴⁷ verted” that Dorothy Faya “wanted to return to her” Catonsville home. Reviewing the entire record, the court found that: “This lady was there [Baltimore City] for medical treatment only.

She intended to get medical treatment, but on a temporary basis. Unfortunately, she couldn’t get out of the hospital and return to her home.” As the majority opinion points out, the Circuit Court itself found that “the facts of this case do not support the conclusion that the Decedent ‘resided’ at University Specialty Hospital.” (Emphasis added). The Circuit Court also pointed out that no writings indicated that the decedent intended to change either her residence or her domicile and that the application for medical assistance, prepared for Dorothy Faya by an agent or employee of the hospital, listed her residence as 606 Stoney Lane, as did numerous other documents related to her stay at the Hospital. Even the University Specialty Hospital’s computer system listed the decedent’s residence as 606 Stoney Lane.

The majority asserts, and I agree, that “[rjesidence means something more than” “a person who dies while on vacation, or on a business trip, or during a short-term stay in a hospital.” Unfortunately, the majority fails to explain which indicia can or should be used to determine what that “something more” is. In resolving what it means to “reside” in a place, I believe this Court should consider its previous opinions on residency, which the majority opinion, in large part, ignores. Those opinions, however, indicate that an individual does not “reside” in a hospital room, especially when all of the objective criteria indicate that she