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I recently had my Maryland state income taxes intercepted by the Medical Care Program Administration, in the amount of $474.84. They say that I still owe them another $487. It was for birth expenses of my daughter, who was born 24 years ago! What the heck? Is there no statute of limitations on this type of thing? I received the first bill for this roughly 3-5 years ago, so the bill would have been 15 to 20-years-old. I have recently spoken with her mother (we have been divorced for about 11 years) and she has never received any type of bill or anything for this, only I have. I think that I should file some type of civil suit against her mother for half of this bill. Am I correct in thinking this?
This seems like an unusual situation, and it is unclear why the State is involved with birth expenses for your daughter. Generally, the State of Maryland will not pursue debt or overpayment after so much time has passed.
There is one significant exception, and that is if the state determines that you received funds that did not go towards the intended medical expenses. If this is the case, then you would have to prove that your wife was also responsible for converting the funds. If this is not the case, you may want to consider appealing the determination that you owe the state this money. You can find information on appealing this determination on Maryland’s Central
Collection Unit website.
If an appeal is not successful, you can request that your ex-wife pay half the outstanding amount. If this request is not successful, you may choose to file a claim against her in small claims court. You would not need an attorney to represent you for this. Keep in mind, if you file a claim in small claims court against your wife and lose, you will not be able to file a similar claim against her in the future.
As a side note, the one other situation we can think of where this would still be an open issue is if state assistance was used to cover the birth of your daughter, in which case you and/or her mother would be responsible for reimbursing the state.
