A publicly owned nursing home has won a $120,000 judgment against a family accused of hiding assets before and after their patriarch died in 2011.
Warren County filed a petition in surrogate court, seeking payment from the family of Bernard J. King, who was living at Westmount Health Facility in Queensbury, NY, when he died.
In a June 10 ruling reported this week by the Post-Star, Warren County Judge John Hall ruled in the county’s favor and said the family acted in “bad faith” in its failure to pay King’s living expenses.
King’s estate owed the $111,929 bill, which will be topped by 9% interest, attorney Mary Kissane told the newspaper. The ruling also calls for a surcharge to cover the county’s legal fees.
King’s son, Robert King, vouched that his father had the resources to pay for care at Westmount when he was admitted in 2010. Despite declaring assets of more than $1 million, neither Robert King nor his brother Donald King paid bills related to their father’s Alzheimer’s care.
Instead, the court found, the family was shown to have sold hundreds of thousands of dollars in stock and liquidated retirement accounts for personal use. Judge Hall called one $215,000 payment from a trust to Donald King as “pilfering.”
The Kings have filed a notice of appeal.
