4. My husband has amassed hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical bills when he was fighting his cancer at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical Center. I am legally responsible for paying for my deceased husband's medical bills?
This is a very involved question and there are several possible ways to answer it. In New Jersey a spouse has a duty to provide the "necessaries" for the other spouse so long as the husband and wife are living together. Under New Jersey law most courts would hold the wife responsible for her husband's medical bills, provided that they were living together during the period when the medical bills were incurred.
A very illustrative case is Jersey Shore Medical Center-Fitkin Hospital v. Estate of Baum, 84 N.J. 137 (1980). Here the New Jersey Supreme Court held that both spouses are liable for the necessary expenses incurred by either spouse in the course of the marriage. Both parties are responsible for each other's necessary expenses incurred during the marriage. So long as the marriage subsists, the financial resources of both spouses should be available to pay the creditor who provides the necessary goods and services to either spouse. However, any judgment creditor must first seek satisfaction from the income and the property of the spouse who incurred the debt. If those resources are insufficient, then the creditor is only then justified in seeking the collection of the bills from the income and the property of the other spouse.
When the spouses are not living together, then the case law will not hold a spouse responsible for his/her spouse's debts. In the case of National Account Systems, Inc. v. Mercado, 196 N.J. Super. 133 (App. Div. 1984), it was held that a wife would not be liable for the hospital bills of her husband, as they had been separated for four years. The marriage was simply not viable and the couple was not a financial unit at the time of the husband's hospitalization. It was not reasonable for the hospital to assume that the wife's assets would be available for the payment of its bill.
In summary, medical services rendered to a spouse are regarded as "necessaries." If the couple were living together when the medical bills were incurred, then the obligation rests upon the surviving spouse to these bills that were caused by the decedent spouse's last illness.
5. Who obtains the custody of the children if the custodial parent should die?
A common question in any divorce scenario is whether the custodial parent can name someone other than their ex-spouse or soon-to-be ex as the guardian for the children. While a parent can name anyone he or she chooses, a court will presume that the surviving parent is fit and will award custody to that parent. The court will ignore any other designated guardian for the children.
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