Facts
- Harry Lee Stewart was admitted to a nursing home for rehabilitation and signed an admission contract containing a broad arbitration clause.
- The clause required arbitration of disputes “arising out of or in any way relating to” the facility’s care and services, including negligence and malpractice, and stated it bound the patient’s estate, heirs, and assigns.
- Stewart later died; his personal representative, on behalf of the estate and statutory survivors, sued the nursing home-related entities.
- The complaint asserted (1) a claim under the Florida Nursing Home Residents’ Rights Act and (2) a wrongful death claim under Florida’s Wrongful Death Act.
- Defendants moved to compel arbitration under the admission agreement; the estate argued the wrongful death action belonged to survivors and was not subject to Stewart’s agreement.
Issues
- Whether a nursing-home arbitration agreement executed by a competent patient binds the patient’s estate and statutory survivors to arbitrate a subsequent wrongful death action arising from alleged tortious care within the agreement’s scope.
Decision
- The Florida Supreme Court answered the certified question “yes” and approved the Fifth District’s decision.
- The Court held that a valid nursing-home arbitration agreement signed by the decedent binds the decedent’s estate and statutory heirs in a later wrongful death action based on care within the agreement’s scope.
- The Court affirmed compelling arbitration of the wrongful death claim.
Legal Principles
- For determining enforceability of an arbitration clause against wrongful death claimants, a Florida wrongful death action is treated as derivative in the sense that it is contingent on the decedent’s ability to have maintained an action and recovered damages had the decedent lived.
- Because wrongful death claimants are subject to defenses and contractual limitations that could have been asserted against the decedent (including releases), they may also be bound by the decedent’s contractual choice of forum through arbitration.
- Arbitration provisions in otherwise valid contracts are enforced under ordinary contract principles as forum-selection agreements; characterizing wrongful death as “new and independent” in other contexts does not preclude enforcement of the decedent’s arbitration agreement against survivors for this purpose.
Conclusion
The Florida Supreme Court held that when a competent nursing-home resident signs a valid, broadly scoped arbitration agreement covering care-related tort claims, the agreement binds the resident’s estate and statutory survivors and requires arbitration of a later wrongful death action arising from the resident’s treatment and care.