Opinion
January 14, 1971
Proceeding under CPLR article 78 (transferred to the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court in the Third Judicial Department by order of the Supreme Court at Special Term, entered in Essex County) to review a determination of the New York State Department of Social Services which determined that the Essex County Department of Social Services is liable for certain medical expenses attributed to one Dora R. Van Horn. In August, 1968, Miss Dora R. Van Horn, a patient at the White Plains Center for Nursing Care, White Plains, New York, applied for medical assistance through the Westchester County Department of Social Services. Her application was denied and she was referred to the Essex County Department of Social Services. A subsequent application to that agency was likewise denied and following that denial, Miss Van Horn was granted a fair hearing by the New York State Department of Social Services. The decision rendered at that hearing provided that with regard to the two agencies to which application was made, the Essex County Department of Social Services was responsible for providing medical assistance to Miss Van Horn. The present proceeding was then instituted by the Essex County Commissioner of Social Services seeking review of that determination pursuant to CPLR 7803 (subd. 4) and subsequently by order of Special Term, was transferred here for determination. No party to this action questions Miss Van Horn's entitlement to medical assistance. The only issue in dispute concerns which of the respondent agencies is responsible for providing that assistance. The record developed at the hearings reveals that Miss Van Horn's initial contact with Essex County occurred in 1949 when she enrolled and participated in a summer art study program in the town of Elizabethtown. Thereafter, each year she returned to Elizabethtown and resided there during the summer months. For the remainder of each year, she traveled, lived in various other cities, including Philadelphia or stayed with her sister in the latter's New York City apartment. From 1952 to the summer of 1964, she owned a home in Elizabethtown where she resided during the summer and which she frequently rented during the winter months. Records of the Essex County Board of Elections indicate that Miss Van Horn was enrolled and voted each year from 1953 through 1956 in District 1 of the Town of Elizabethtown, while records of the Department of Taxation and Finance show that resident New York State income tax returns were filed by Miss Van Horn from Elizabethtown for the years 1959 through 1963. In September, 1963, Miss Van Horn left Elizabethtown and resided for a short period of time with her sister in New York City. Shortly after arriving there, Miss Van Horn was admitted to Mt. Sinai Hospital where she remained hospitalized for some two weeks. Immediately following her dismissal from Mt. Sinai Hospital, she became a patient in a New York City nursing home and since that time she has continuously been a patient at various nursing homes in New York City, Rockland County and Westchester County. Section 62 (subd. 5, par. [d]) of the Social Services Law provides in pertinent part, as follows: "When a person, either upon admission to a hospital or nursing home located in a public welfare district other than the district in which he was then residing, or while in such hospital or nursing home, is or becomes in need of medical assistance, the public welfare district from which he was admitted to such hospital or nursing home shall be responsible for providing such medical assistance for so long as such person is eligible therefor. * * * The provisions of this paragraph shall likewise be applicable to the care of an eligible person who, while temporarily absent from the public welfare district in which he then resided, was admitted to a hospital or nursing home in another public welfare district prior to the effective date hereof." Applying that section to the facts herein, the State Department of Social Services ruled that prior to becoming continuously confined to a hospital or nursing home Miss Van Horn's last residence was in Essex County and, accordingly, the Essex County Department of Social Services was the agency responsible for providing medical assistance to her. Upon review, we conclude that this determination is amply supported by substantial evidence. By the terms of the section quoted above, the crucial period of residence is that immediately preceding the applicant's initial admission and subsequent continuous confinement. In support of the department's determination that applicant's residence prior to confinement was in Essex County we cite the applicant's ownership of real property in Essex County for several years and her utilization of that property as a homesite for the summer months of each year, her regular pattern of residing in Essex County during the summer months of each year for some 14 years, her filing of resident New York State Income Tax returns from Essex County for the years 1959 through 1963 and the absence of any conclusive evidence indicating the establishment of residence elsewhere. Applicant's residence of brief duration with her sister in New York City immediately preceding her admission to Mt. Sinai Hospital is not determinative, rather it falls within the scope of the "temporary absence" provision of the quoted section. Whatever may have been the applicant's intention to relinquish her residence in Essex County, the Commissioner was justified in finding, that at the time of her initial admission to the hospital and nursing home, she had not abandoned, for the purpose of this proceeding, her residence in Essex County. Determination confirmed and petition dismissed, without costs. Herlihy, P.J., Aulisi, Staley, Jr., Cooke and Sweeney, JJ., concur.