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Outrageous Law Transfers Parents’ Debt To YOU
| July 15, 2009 | Posted by Roshawn Watson under Uncategorized |
By: Roshawn Watson
With few exceptions, such as a divorce decree, you are not legally liable for debts you have not personally signed for or agreed to pay. There is an inherent sense of fairness to this principle: your finances cannot be obligated to pay for something without your consent (except perhaps to the taxman or to your dependents). However, an archaic law in Pennsylvania is being enforced to make adult children to pay for their parents’ debts.
image credit: somethingstartedcrazy
A Disturbing Law In Hands of Ambitious Lawyers
Zealous lawyers in Pennsylvania representing nursing homes and hospitals are creatively applying a little-known law dating back to Elizabethan England that requires families to take care of each other financially. The law is known as “support of indigents,” and it can force adult children to pay their parents’ health-care costs. Nonetheless, the purpose of this law is to shift the financial responsibility of care of loved ones to their families in the event that the loved ones cannot pay. On the surface, some would ask what is the problem with sharing in your parent’s financial burden? There are few that would that the argue that the intent of the law wasn’t noble. However, I guess it is easy to be self-righteous with other’s people money. There is a big difference to voluntarily helping out versus being forced to pay because there are judgments against you.
A Noble Law, but the Devil is in the Details
Additionally, there are several problems with applying the law today. First, the law simply doesn’t appear to take into account the distinction between whether the parents can afford to pay but are refusing payment and parents who are broke and cannot pay. Of course, not everyone has financial integrity, and there have been situations where parents who have the means to pay their bills have elected not to for various reasons. In some cases, the cause of nonpayment is due to financial irresponsibility while in other cases, nonpayment is caused by mishandling of their finances. You may ask, why not sue the parents if they can pay, but it is not that simple. Unlike wages, pension and social security income cannot be garnished. A second problem is that the law doesn’t appear to consider estrangement. For example, in some cases children have had little to no contact with their parents for years. Being sued to bear someones financial burdens probably won’t hasten that family reconciliation either. A third issue with applying the law is that some children are financially unable to pay the debts themselves. Being saddled with debt when you aren’t thriving yourself only precipitates your own downfall. A fourth problem with this law is that now debt can survive death. Consider that if someone dies with $200,000 in medical expenses and is unable to pay, that debt would be normally be discharged in most states. That’s because, the person’s estate would have to stand good for the $200,000. If the estate cannot cover that $200,000, the debt would not have to be paid. However, if the medical institutions can now attach that debt to surviving relatives, that debt survives that person’s death and can potentially ruin their families lives.
In addition to the aforementioned problems, the law brings up other considerations. For example, there are obviously serious issues with the constitutionality of forcing someone to pay for a debt that they had no choice in creating. For example, would the family have chosen nursing home A that costs four times more than nursing home B if they had known that they were paying the bill? Often when you bear the financial burden, your opinion must be considered. One can only imagine the implications on one’s care if family members are now concerned about protecting themselves from lawsuits and liens while caring for a loved one. There could be a real conflict of interest. Another question is whether Pennsylvania state law supersedes other states? Apparently, some Pennsylvania lawyers think so and have brought lawsuits against adult children living outside of Pennsylvania for the medical expenses of their parents residing in Pennsylvania. Needless to say, there are several appeals on the books, and often these cases end in settlements.
Given all these challenges, I think this law fell out of practice for good reason. Hopefully, the enforcement of this outdated law doesn’t give families yet one more reason to stay apart, especially while a parent is having medical challenges. The noble intentions of the framers of this law doesn’t negate the fact that the law is ill-suited for our present-day American society. As alluded to earlier, this law actually predates America. However, it didn’t work then, and it doesn’t work now.
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That sucks!! I bet they are enforcing it more than ever because of the credit crunch!
My father-in-law died a few months ago. His girlfriend has since informed us that various collections people are now trying to locate us. Luckily she isn't cooperating. You can be sure I'll give them a whole lotta grief if they ever do make contact with me.
same law exists in France
Sounds like the situation I'm in after a divorce from a financially irresponsible spouse.
I agree that the law is definitely unfair, and I do think it is very much like a divorce decree.Sage, you should definitely fight for your rights!
English law is not binding in the US. It was all abrogated by the revolution.The Founders of the US specifically disbarred all English lawyers.
I wish someone would tell PA attorneys!