Last year’s decision by the Pennsylvania Superior Court that a nursing home was authorized to collect nearly $100,000 in outstanding bills from an adult child of an indigent nursing home resident, Health Care & Retirement v. Pittas, 2012 PA Super 96, 46 A.3d 719 (2012), garnered widespread attention.
The nursing home filed suit against the adult son based upon a little-known Pennsylvania filial support statute, 23 Pa. C.S. §4603, titled "relatives’ liability." The statute imposes a duty upon a spouse, child or parent of an indigent person "to care for and maintain or financially assist" the indigent person. Because the obligation is statutory, the Superior Court had little choice but to enforce the statute. The Supreme Court recently denied the son’s appeal, surely because the duty imposed was a matter of statutory enforcement.
