If I had to choose a favorite subset of arbitration cases, it might be the ones that come after SCOTUS remands to a state supreme court.  How does a state high court full of accomplished professionals, the cream of the legal crop in their state, respond after the U.S. Supreme Court has found their previous arbitration opinion was flawed?  Often, they find a way to stick to their guns.  We already saw that once in 2017, when Hawaii affirmed its arbitration decision, despite the GVR from SCOTUS.  And now Kentucky has followed suit.

In Kindred Nursing Centers Ltd P’ship v. Wellner, 2017 WL 5031530 (Ky. Nov. 2, 2017), the Kentucky Supreme Court addressed what was left of its Extendicare decision after SCOTUS took it apart in May of this year.  But not much was left.  The original decision had consolidated three separate actions: one was not appealed to SCOTUS, one was reversed by SCOTUS, and only the third was remanded by SCOTUS.  In the remanded matter, the Kentucky Supreme Court had rested its decision on two alternative grounds–the ground that SCOTUS found was preempted (that a power of attorney must clearly grant the right to give up a court or jury trial in order to have a valid arbitration agreement executed by the agent), and a finding that the language of the power of attorney at issue was not broad enough to encompass entering into a pre-dispute arbitration agreement.  So, the job on remand was to determine whether the second ground could stand up on its own, or whether it was “impermissibl[y] taint[ed]” by the preempted ground.

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