WARD v. NATIONAL HEALTHCARE CORPORATION LLC (2009)

Plaintiff Patricia Ward's mother, Nona Woods, was placed in NHC Healthcare, a nursing care facility, in May 2003.   At the time of Woods' admission, another of her daughters, Bobby Rouse, signed an “Admission and Financial Contract,” which contained an arbitration provision.   Woods' signature also appears on the agreement.   Woods died in October 2003.

Ward filed a wrongful death suit against the nursing care facility in 2005.   The NHC defendants subsequently filed a motion to enforce the arbitration clause, which the trial court overruled.

The NHC defendants appealed.   After the Court of Appeals, Southern District, dismissed the appeal, the case was transferred to this Court pursuant to Rule 83.04 For the reasons discussed in Dale Lawrence v. Beverly Manor, 273 S.W.3d 525 (Mo. banc 2009), the judgment of the circuit court is affirmed.

The only relevant factual distinction between this case and Lawrence is that, in this case, Bobby Rouse as well as the decedent, Nona Woods, signed the arbitration agreement.   The signature line under Rouse's name indicates that Rouse signed as Woods' “Legal Representative.”

Rouse is not an attorney, nor was she her mother's guardian, nor had she been given durable power of attorney or any other legally binding status as her mother's agent.   The phrase “legal representative,” in the absence of something indicating some status conferred by law or by a court, has no legal meaning.

The phrase “legal representative” may have some factual significance in this situation, however.   The words “legal representative” under Rouse's signature make clear that Rouse was not signing in her individual capacity or on her own behalf as a potential member of a class of wrongful death plaintiffs.   Rouse's signature on the agreement carries no legally binding weight regarding the arbitration of a wrongful death claim.   The arbitration agreement is not binding on Rouse or any of the other members of the class of wrongful death plaintiffs.

The judgment of the circuit court is affirmed.

MICHAEL A. WOLFF, Judge.

All concur.