"w b evans" <wbeevans@verizon.net> wrote:
[I'm] my 90 year old mother's agent . . .
for her power of attorney for healthcare.
I've heard horror stories of people signing
their elderly parents into a nursing facility,
and after the parents money runs out,
because the son signed, the nursing home
comes after them for the balance. If
I'm reading the print correctly, I can sign
for her as POA, without any personal liability.
Is this correct??
Saying that your mother gave you "her power of attorney for
healthcare" does not answer whether she therein also authorized you to
"sign for her as POA" for the purpose of you, as agent on her behalf,
creating/memorializing fincnaial obligations of hers as principal.
But assuming that she has given you a power-of-attorney for that
latter purpose, though you are correct in asking about the one
princple of law you do (that an agent for disclosed principle will not
be held liable for the principal's later default of an obligation the
agent undertook on the principal's behalf within the scope of the
agent's authority), query whether you are asking what, for you and
your mother, are the actually correct practical questions.
In other words, depending the nature/amount of your mother's own
assets at the relevant time or on whether she has insurance suffient
to render moot the quesiton of her own assets, the real-life questions
you implicitly raise but which the answer to the only question you
pose does not address remain:
- Does and will your mother have sufficient assets
such that, as a practical matter, the nursing home
at issue will provide admission/services to her based
solely on on her assets/credit?
- What will you do if, as a condition of your
mother's admission, the nursing home asks you to
"sign" notjust as her agent but also as a principal
(e.g., as guarantor)?
