The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court recently ruled in favor of an arbitration agreement in place at a Golden Living facility.
The state’s wrongful death law, enacted in 1840 and updated in 1958, does not override arbitration agreements, the high court ruled.
The federal First Circuit Court of Appeals had asked the state’s highest judicial authority for its opinion.
The Supreme Judicial Court unanimously agreed that since a relative of a nursing home resident signed an arbitration agreement with the Golden Living nursing home, the relative cannot file a wrongful death suit, even after her mother died from possible neglect, the Boston Globe reported.
“Based on a plain reading of the wrongful death statute and our interpretation of common-law wrongful death actions over time, and in light of persuasive authority from other states, we determine that … the arbitration clause in question is enforceable,” Justice David A. Lowy wrote.
Jackalyn Schrader had power of attorney for her mother, Emma Schrader, when the older woman moved into the Golden Living facility in 2013. The daughter signed an arbitration agreement.
Emma Schrader died in 2013, following surgery for pressure ulcers. She never recovered from the surgery, according to the court. Her daughter filed a wrongful death suit, but a federal court ruled that Jackalyn had waived that right when she signed the agreement.
Not all recent high-profile arbitration agreement cases have come down on the side of providers wanting arbitration.
In January, an appeals court found that an Arizona skilled nursing facility was not allowed to compel arbitration of claims in a wrongful death suit stemming from a resident’s deadly wheelchair accident. Because the pushing of a wheelchair doesn’t count as a “medical service,” it doesn’t fit within the scope of the agreement, the court ruled.
