News

Sybil Newton, Weathers Bolt, and Edward Hines obtained a favorable ruling from the Alabama Supreme Court to enforce their client’s arbitration agreement in a nursing home malpractice case. The resident’s daughter signed the arbitration agreement on the resident’s behalf at the time of admission. The personal representative for the resident’s estate argued, however, that the daughter did not have apparent authority to sign and did not meet the definition of an authorized representative under the agreement. The trial court denied the Motion to Compel Arbitration. The Alabama Supreme Court reversed, applying principles of apparent authority, and stating: “it was not necessary for the nursing home to independently determine that the contractual conditions were met . . . in the absence of circumstances putting the nursing home on notice that the signatory’s certification was false.”