Opinion ID: 1709213
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: jurisdiction

Text: Subject matter jurisdiction has not been raised as an issue by the parties, but we have considered it. We hold the Probate Court had jurisdiction to consider the claim. The leading modern case on the subject is Hilburn v. First State Bank of Springdale, 259 Ark. 569, 535 S.W.2d 810 (1976). There we held the Probate Court lacked jurisdiction to entertain the claim of a person contesting title to property asserted to be part of the estate by a decedent's personal representative. We pointed out the limited authority of the Probate Court and noted that the plaintiff was not an heir, distributee or devisee... or a beneficiary of, or claimant against, [the] ... estate. She was a `third person,' i.e., a stranger to the estate. [Emphasis supplied.] In the case now before us, it is very clear that DHS is a claimant against the estate. Our Probate Code permits a probate court to adjudicate claims against the estate, Ark. Code Ann. § 28-50-105(a)(4) (Supp.1993), and the General Assembly has specifically stated that DHS may assert such a claim against the estate by the language of Act 415, codified as Ark.Code Ann. § 20-76-436 (Supp.1993) which is as follows: Federal or state benefits in cash or in kind, including, but not limited to, Medicaid,... paid by the Department of Human Services ... for services rendered, shall, upon the death of the recipient, constitute a debt to be paid. The Department of Human Services may make a claim against the estate of a deceased recipient for the amount of any benefit distributed or paid, or charges levied, by the Department of Human Services. The Act merely creates a debt upon the death of the recipient of medicaid payments which may be asserted as a claim against the estate. Unlike the Hilburn case, we are not concerned with an issue of title to property in the estate. Nor are we concerned with the Probate Court lacking jurisdiction because a remedy sought is equitable and thus to be pursued only in a chancery court as in Arkansas State Employees Ins. Advisory Comm. v. Estate of Manning, 316 Ark. 143, 870 S.W.2d 748 (1994). Also to be distinguished is our recent case of Arkansas Dept. of Human Servs. v. Estate of Hogan, 314 Ark. 19, 858 S.W.2d 105 (1993). There we held that it was proper for the Probate Court to approve a guardian's settlement of her ward's tort claim but that the Court exceeded its jurisdiction when it held that a trust created by the settlement was not a medicaid qualifying trust. The point of that decision was that whether or not the trust, which was created by the settlement, was a medicaid qualifying trust was a question ancillary and irrelevant to the propriety of the tort claim settlement with respect to which the Probate Court did have authority. The claim against the estate of Ms. Wood by DHS is just that. On Constitution grants Probate Courts exclusive original jurisdiction in matters relative to the probate of wills, the estates of deceased persons ... as is now vested in courts of probate, or may be hereafter prescribed by law. Ark. Const. art. 7, § 34. As noted above, § 28-50-105(a)(4) gives the Probate Court authority to adjudicate claims against a decedent's estate, and Act 415 specifically permits the claim now under consideration. There is no lack of subject matter jurisdiction in the Probate Court.