SCOTUS Kicks Arbitration Case

This month, the U.S. Supreme Court kicked a Kindred Healthcare arbitration case, declining to review the case for a second time. Last year, the High Court sided with Kindred in Kindred Nursing Ctrs. LP v. Clark, which related to whether an arbitration agreement signed by a Power Of Attorney (POA) is enforceable if not granted explicit permission to sign such a document in the POA. Kindred petitioned for certiorari this time arguing the Kentucky Supreme Court failed to adhere to the decision in its favor. The long term care provider asserted the state refused to honor the Justices’ interpretation of the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA). The state court declined to honor the arbitration agreement signed by power of attorney, without the nursing home resident giving express authority to sign away the right to a trial. The nursing home relied on two provisions in the power of attorney, one giving power to demand or collect money and institute legal proceedings, and another giving the power to make contracts “in relation to both real and personal property.” The court found that the arbitration agreement “was not the enforcement…of something then due or to become due” “nor was it the making of a contract…pertaining to” property. As a result, “that aspect of the Extendicare decision remains undisturbed.” The case rejected by the Supreme Court was one of three others consolidated under Clark, and was bounced back to Kentucky. Interestingly, the Kentucky high court just became the first state to find employers may not require employees to sign arbitration agreements as a condition of their employment, indicating a hostility toward FAA preemption and the arbitration process that may bleed over into this area of law as well. See more here-- https://bit.ly/2S2Wzsx and https://bit.ly/2R28ju1