In Holland v. Silverscreen Healthcare, the Supreme Court yesterday exempted from an arbitration agreement signed by a skilled nursing facility resident certain claims for the resident’s death brought by the resident’s parents.
The court’s unanimous opinion by Justice Leondra Kruger says the key to determining arbitrability is whether a claim is for professional negligence against a medical provider, in which case a provision in the Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act requires enforcing an arbitration agreement, even if only the deceased and not the wrongful death plaintiffs signed the agreement. But that statute has a “limited scope,” the court said.
Deciding whether a lawsuit is for professional negligence is tricky when the defendant is a skilled nursing facility because, the opinion says, such a facility “wears multiple hats, rendering services in its capacity as a medical provider as well as in its capacity as custodian of residents’ general well-being, which includes responsibilities such as providing nutrition and hydration.” The test, the court stated, is “whether ‘the primary basis for the wrongful death claim sounds in’ medical malpractice or in custodial neglect.”
In the case before it, the court said the test could not be definitively applied yet because “there remains substantial uncertainty about whether plaintiffs seek to challenge the defendants’ provision of medical care, its provision of custodial care, or both.” So, the court concluded the plaintiffs should have a chance to amend their complaint when the case returns to the lower courts.
The court reverses a belatedly published Second District, Division Two, Court of Appeal opinion.
