Bielski Law Office, Ltd.

The Fight Over a Mathematician's Notes

Over a year after one of the most celebrated mathematicians of the 21^st Century passed away a legal battle rages in France over the thousands of pages of notes he left behind.

Alexander Grothendieck is neither a name most people will recognize nor is his work something most people would understand. However, his work on algebraic geometry has proven to be of extreme importance in genetics, robotics and cryptography.

For this work, Grothendieck was awarded two of the most prestigious awards in mathematics: the Fields Medal and the Crafoord Prize.

Now, after his death, the thousands of pages of notes Grothendieck took are the subject of a fierce fight as reported by The Independent in an article entitled "Alexander Grothendieck: Legal battle over 'scribblings' of 20th century's 'greatest mathematician'."

In his later years Grothendieck became a recluse. He retreated to his property in Southern France and lived as a subsistence farmer. He also developed an interest in pacifism and environmental activism.

This has led to speculation about exactly what is in the thousands of pages of notes. They could contain valuable mathematic insights or they could contain ramblings about the causes Grothendieck supported.

The current battle pits the French National Library, Grothendieck's family and the University of Montpellier all against each other for ownership of all or part of the notes.

Each party is currently in possession of some of the notes, although the family has deposited five trunks full of pages of the notes with an expert to be appraised. The library and the family are fighting over the value of the notes. The family is disputing the University's claim to own 20,000 pages of the notes that were previously given to it by a former pupil of the mathematician.

Reference: Independent (Jan. 15, 2016) "Alexander Grothendieck: Legal battle over 'scribblings' of 20th century's 'greatest mathematician'."

Think Twice Before Challenging a Will

When people are upset over an inheritance their first instinct is often to contest the will. However, will contests have high emotional and financial costs and should not be undertaken lightly.

The Rochester Business Journal recently published an interesting article about the costs and difficulty of challenging a will in an article entitled "Choosing to contest a will costs financial, emotional tolls."

As the article explains, contesting a will almost always create rifts in families. These rifts are similar to the emotional impact of getting a divorce. Hurt feelings between relatives take a long time to heal and many times they never do.

The article also explains why challenging a will is so financially costly.

To be successful with a challenge it must be proven that the testator was not mentally competent to create the will.

This is very difficult for two reasons. First, it does not take much to be competent enough to make a will. The person does not need to be generally competent to do everything else in life. When it comes to testamentary capacity he or she just needs to be lucid enough at the time to understand and approve of the will. Secondly, in almost all circumstances the person who wishes to contest a will was not present when the will was signed. Consequently, this makes it impossible for the person to have direct knowledge regarding whether the testator was lucid and mentally incompetent.

This does not mean that wills should never be challenged. It just means that anyone thinking about contesting a will should proceed with caution and seek the services of an experienced estate attorney.

A will contest should only be initiated after the attorney has time to review the case and assess the likelihood that the will contest will be successful.

Reference: Rochester Business Journal (Jan. 8, 2016) "Choosing to contest a will costs financial, emotional tolls."

Medicare to Tighten Restrictions on Home Health Devices

Medicare fraud costs the federal government millions of dollars a year. Fraudulent claims for devices used in home health care are among the costliest. As a result, Medicare is increasing regulation.

When a person has Medicare and needs a home health device, such as oxygen, they are supposed to receive a doctor's order for it and then get it from a supplier immediately. Most of the time that system works well for everyone involved.

However, fraudsters have been able to gain false patient and doctor identifications so they can file false claims and get paid.

In response, Medicare has been testing a pilot program in 19 states. In those states before a Medicare patient can receive a power wheelchair the doctor must first get approval from Medicare. How has the pilot program worked? Beginning on Feb. 28, the preapproval process will be expanded nationally. It will include other common home health devices, including oxygen and sleep apnea equipment.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported this story in "Medicare to tighten requirements for many home medical devices."

While it is good that Medicare is looking for ways to eliminate fraud, these new restrictions could have a negative impact on patients' health care. Some experts fear that requiring preapproval could lead to increased hospital stays while approval is sought.

For its part, Medicare claims it will respond to requests within 10 days and have a system in place to expedite review when necessary.

Reference: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Jan. 18, 2016) "Medicare to tighten requirements for many home medical devices."

Apple Tells Widow to Get a Court Order

A Canadian widow had a much easier time transferring the titles to her home and car when her husband passed away than she had getting his Apple ID so that she could continue playing a card game.

To call Apple's ID policies when a person passes away strict would be an understatement.

Peggy Bush, a Canadian widow shared an iPad with her late husband on which she liked to play a card game. When she began having problems with the game her family decided to try reinstalling the game.

Unfortunately, Bush did not know her husband's Apple ID.

When her daughter called Apple she was initially told she would need to produce her father's will and death certificate to get the password.

When those were procured, Apple still refused to help.

Many phone calls later the family was told by Apple that they would need to get a court order for Apple to give them the password.

CBC News reported this story in "Apple demands widow get court order to access dead husband's password."

This is becoming a very common problem, and not just with Apple. Tech companies each have their own policy concerning when they will allow access to a deceased person's account. Despite the often express wishes of the deceased some companies will never allow access to accounts without a court order.

With business and financial transactions increasingly taking place online executors and family members often need account access to handle the estate.

State legislators across the county are attempting to come up with a solution to this problem. Until it is fully resolved the best practice is to make sure the executor of your estate has a way to learn your account passwords. That way he or she can easily gain access to important accounts.

Reference: CBC News (Jan. 18, 2016) "Apple demands widow get court order to access dead husband's password."

Rising Gray Divorce Rate Problematic

The overall divorce rate in the United States has remained stable for some time. However, the rate of divorce for older Americans is rising and that can create problems.

Researchers at Bowling Green State University recently published a study that looked into the effects of what are known as "gray divorces." These are divorces that occur when the spouses are over the age of 50.

What the researchers found is alarming, if not necessarily surprising.

Since 1990, the divorce rate in the United States has not changed significantly. On the other hand, the gray divorce rate has doubled.

One of the main problems when an older person divorces is the increased likelihood they will spend their elderly years in poverty.

The Elder Law Prof Blog reported on this study in "The Rising Impact of Unpartnered Older Adults and 'Gray Divorce'."

As anyone who has ever been through a divorce knows, divorce has a high financial cost. After a divorce both of the ex-spouses normally take awhile to recover from those costs completely.

For many people who get divorced after the age of 50 there simply is not enough time to recover before they reach the age of retirement.

In some cases this eventually leads to poverty.

The more elderly people living in poverty the more pressure there is on the elder law system and the programs designed to assist the elderly. That will impact society in general.

Rising elderly poverty rates also create problems for younger generations.

This is because they will need to shoulder more of the financial burden of helping elderly family members without an eventual inheritance to recoup that outlay.

If you are contemplating a "gray divorce," you may want to look twice before you leap.

Reference: Elder Law Prof Blog (Jan. 15, 2016) "The Rising Impact of Unpartnered Older Adults and 'Gray Divorce'."