California Nursing Home Abuse – Arbitration Agreements

Arbitration Agreements in Cases of Nursing Home Abuse

The matter of Birl v. Heritage Care, LLC, State of California, Second Appellate District involved claims of wrongful death of the decedent Jerome Birl, elder abuse, and related causes of action brought against a nursing home facility and its owner. The issue on appeal is whether an arbitration clause should apply.

The Court concluded that because (1) the other co-defendants in the action (the hospital and doctors) are third parties unaffected by this arbitration agreement, and (2) the plaintiffs alleged several causes of action in their individual capacity as third parties not bound by the arbitration agreement, the trial court did not misapply the law (Code Civ. Proc., § 1281.2, subd. (c)) or abuse its broad discretion in refusing to enforce the arbitration agreement to avoid the possibility of conflicting rulings on common issues of law or fact.

Courts are now loathe to enforce Arbitration Agreements against third parties and for causes of action which are not contained in an Arbitration Agreement for fear that enforcement of an arbitration clause would cause conflicting and / or inconsistent rulings of the arbitrated matter versus the matter tried to Jury.

– from Steven Peck, Senior Attorney at Peck Law Group