NC Court of Appeals Rules in Favor of Disabled Man, Limits State Power
Source: triangle.dbusinessnews.com

NC Court of Appeals Rules in Favor of Disabled Man, Limits State Power

Triangle - The law firm of Ragsdale Liggett PLLC, Raleigh, NC announces a significant win for petitioner Michael Jonathan McCrann, Jr., represented by Attorney James L. Conner II, in a case against the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). DHHS had denied Jonathan critically needed habilitation services based upon a staff re-write of one of the State's mental health plans, called the CAP Waiver. DHHS had provided these services for years and admitted in the litigation that Jonathan still needed them, generally qualified for them, and that cost was not an issue. The services were denied on a technical interpretation of one of the rewritten paragraphs in the Waiver. On January 18, 2011, the North Carolina Court of Appeals ruled in favor of McCrann and his family on every point without dissent. In addition to ruling against DHHS on the law, the Court ordered that DHHS reimburse the McCranns for their out-of-pocket costs during the litigation.

The verdict is the culmination of a hard fought battle that began in 2006. After the DHHS informed the McCranns that the needed services would no longer be covered by the State's Medicaid-funded CAP program, (Community Alternatives Program for Persons with Mental Retardation and Other Developmental Disabilities), the McCranns filed a petition for a hearing at the Office of Administrative Hearings. Attorney Jim Conner won at trial when the Administrative Law Judge held in January 2008 that DHHS' denial of benefits was "arbitrary and capricious and erroneous as a matter of law." In 2009 Wake County Superior Court Senior Judge Donald Stephens upheld the ruling, adopting the ALJ's findings completely. When the State doggedly pursued the matter, Mr. Conner and his clients soundly defeated DHHS's last appeal as of right.

This ruling has significant implications. "The Court ruled correctly on what I believe is an incredibly important point of law," said Jim Conner. "State employees cannot make law by simply writing stuff down and getting some other bureaucrat in the federal Medicaid system to sign off on it. Technically, the Court held that the MR/DD/SAS Medicaid Waiver, written by a committee of State employees and approved by a federal official, is not law and was not enforceable against our client. To do so, they had to carefully and correctly limit the scope of an apparently contrary Supreme Court decision. This decision will fundamentally shake up the DHHS approach. They attempted to impose requirements and restrictions on citizens through waivers, memoranda, and other staff-generated documents that had not been through the legislature or the APA process for promulgating rules. The Court agreed that is wrong. The Court's decision will protect North Carolinians from bureaucratic overreaching."

Conner says the case is special because of the McCranns. Jonathan McCrann has a daunting mix of serious mental and physical afflictions, and his family has stood by him, loved him, and cared for him for all of his 24 years. Mike McCrann, a lawyer and Jonathan's father, says "we're doing this for all the truck drivers and waitresses out there who have disabled kids and who can't afford to fight back when the State pushes them around."

Ragsdale Liggett attorneys, Melissa Brumback, Ashley Campbell and Mary Hulett; paralegal Amy Cutler and legal assistant Lois Dills also did important work on this matter.

Related link: www.rl-law.com

About James L. Conner II, Of Counsel:
Jim Conner represents clients in environmental law, health care law, administrative law and commercial litigation using his extensive knowledge and background in litigation as well as legislative and regulatory matters. Jim is a former Administrative Law Judge, and uses that experience, his dispute resolution training and experience, and his years of litigation to fight for clients in courts at every level, and to very effectively guide parties through mediation and other alternative dispute resolution processes. He is admitted to practice in the NC Supreme Court, Federal District Courts and the US Court of Appeals Fourth Circuit. Jim is a certified mediator for all NC courts as well as the US District Courts for the Eastern and Middle Districts of North Carolina. He was recently inducted into the North Carolina Academy of Superior Court Mediators. www.ncmediators.org/jim-conner

Judge Conner received his Juris Doctor with honors from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Law after earning a bachelor's degree cum laude in botany from Duke University. A member of the NC Bar Association, Jim is serving his third term as a council member for the Environmental and Natural Resources Law Section of the NC Bar Association. Jim is a frequent speaker at NC Bar Association CLEs and other professional events.

About Ragsdale Liggett PLLC:
The law firm of Ragsdale Liggett, PLLC, is comprised of lawyers with extensive legal expertise across a broad range of practice areas. Known for innovations in corporate law, Ragsdale Liggett is equipped to handle all of a business' legal needs, including formation, day-to-day business counseling, acquisition, disposition, merger and dissolution of companies ranging in sizes. The diverse real estate group handles a wide variety of transactions, from residential purchases and sales to all aspects of commercial real estate development, including entity formation, final project completion, complex public and private bond financing transactions, and the privatization of university student housing. Since its formation in 1972, the firm has an extraordinary reputation in civil litigation and Appellate practice enjoying significant courtroom successes ranging from local state courts to the United States Supreme Court in areas with far-reaching implications, such as insurance/reinsurance coverage disputes, shareholder derivative actions, ERISA disputes, professional negligence defense, accountant liability actions, catastrophic personal injury defense and complex construction disputes. In addition to its equine law, environmental law and mediation practices, the firm has a lobbying and government relations group comprised of professionals who represent interests before the NC General Assembly, the executive branch and various state agencies. 919/787-5200; www.rl-law.com.

Contact Information:
James L. Conner II, Of Counsel, Ragsdale Liggett PLLC
919/787-5200; 919/749-9943; jconner@rl-law.com
Mike McCrann 910-944-7638