Espericuenta

Appellant Guadalupe Espericueta, a minor by and through her guardian ad litem, settled with a third party tortfeasor for $3.6 million after she was severely injured in an automobile accident. Respondent Sandra Shewry, Director of the State Department of Health Care Services (the Department), asserted a lien against the settlement proceeds to recover Medi-Cal payments made on behalf of appellant. The trial court granted a petition to approve the compromise of the minor’s claim, allocating the amount of medical expenses to be paid to the Department. Six months later, appellant filed a motion to extinguish or strike the Department’s lien relying on Arkansas Dept. of Health and Human Servs. v. Ahlborn (2006) 547 U.S. 268 [ 164 L.Ed.2d 459 , 126 S.Ct. 1752 ] (Ahlborn), and submitted expert evidence estimating the overall value of her case to be $26 million. Appellant argued below, as she does on appeal, that the Department’s lien should be reduced to the same percentage that her settlement bears to the overall value of her case. We disagree. Because there has already been a judicial allocation of the medical expenses portion of the settlement in the order approving the minor’s…