A Nebraska nursing home — which was attempting to sort out a wrongful death case via arbitration — must, instead, go to trial.
That fact came to light last week, following a decision from the state’s Supreme Court. The son of a former resident had sued Golden LivingCenter in Valley, NE, for wrongful death, Bloomberg Law reported.
But the memory care facility argued that the plaintiff’s father, 84-year-old Eugene Cullinane, had signed an arbitration agreement, which waived his right to sue the nursing home. However, a trial court sided with the son, according to Bloomberg, ruling that the man was misled, and not told that the forms were voluntary.
Nebraska’s Supreme Court subsequently affirmed that decision, and deemed the arbitration agreement unenforceable. This goes against a general recent trend where providers have won many cases where calls for arbitration were contested.
Cullinane’s son testified that the facility’s admissions officer had only lifted the bottom half of each page and pointed where to sign, allegedly not fully explaining the potential consequences.
