Credit: naruecha jenthaisong / Getty Images
A negligence and breach of contract complaint is headed to arbitration after an appellate court found in favor of the assisted living provider and upheld an arbitration and mediation agreement.
The Florida Second District Court of Appeals last week reversed a trial court’s ruling and ordered former resident Doris H. Pascazi and her daughter Sharon Ann Outwater to resolve their negligence and breach of fiduciary duty claims against St. Petersburg, FL-based Osprey Health Care Center through arbitration.
Pascazi moved into the assisted living community March 20, 2015. Outwater signed several documents for her mother’s admission, including a mediation and arbitration agreement.
In 2018, a year after leaving Osprey, Pascazi sued the provider, former Administrator Randy Lee Sloan, and Enrique de la Piedra, Osprey owner and manager, alleging that the community did not provide promised care and services. Outwater claimed that during her mother’s time at the community, Pascazi suffered multiple falls that ultimately caused or contributed to her “physical, emotional and monetary injuries and damages.”
Outwater sought a jury trial plus damages, attorney’s fees and costs, prejudgment interest, punitive damages and other relief. Outwater and Pascazi claimed the arbitration agreement was invalid because it lacked specific terms regarding arbitration rules and procedures, shortened the applicable statute of limitations, and was procedurally and substantively unconscionable.
Procedural unconscionability relates to the manner in which the contract was entered, whereas substantive unconscionability relates to contract terms that are “outrageously unfair as to shock the judicial conscience.”
The trial court adopted Pascazi’s and Outwater’s position that the shortened statute of limitations provision rendered the mediation and arbitration agreement void.
The appeals court, however, found that the trial court erred in its ruling and that there was no evidence that Outwater was coerced or pressured into signing the arbitration and mediation agreement, and that the terms were spelled out.
“It is beyond debate that these parties agreed to what matters are to be arbitrated,” the decision read.
The court, however, did side with Pascazi and Outwater on the argument that the arbitration agreement violates public policy because it imposes a one-year statute of limitations for claims. The shortened time frame is inconsistent with Florida law, which provides for a two-year statute of limitations for claims against assisted living communities, the court ruled.
The appellate court reversed and remanded the case to order arbitration.
Representatives for Osprey Health Care Center did not respond to requests for comment by McKnight’s Senior Living before the production deadline.
