Kentucky Supreme Court Refuses To Enforce Arbitration
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Nursing home arbitration agreements are among the most unpopular arbitration agreements around. Last week, Kentucky’s Supreme Court issued a lengthy, but fractured, opinion, finding three arbitration agreements were never validly formed because the signing parties did not have authority to give up the decedent’s constitutional right to a jury trial. Extendicare Homes, Inc. v. Whisman, ___ S.W.3d___, 2015 WL 5634309 (Ky. Sept. 24, 2015).
The Extendicare case consolidated three separate matters, all of which involved nursing homes attempting to compel arbitration of wrongful death and personal injury claims by estates of deceased residents. In each case, a relative with power of attorney had signed an admission document when the resident entered the nursing home. In a 2012 case, the Kentucky Supreme Court held that decedents cannot affect the rights of their beneficiaries with respect to wrongful death claims. Therefore, the wrongful death claims were already not subject to arbitration. The Extendicare case confronted the open issue of whether other personal injury claims had to be arbitrated.
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