Lawsuit challenges arbitration in homes
The elderly are asked to waive their right to sue.
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- Pennsylvania has become the latest legal battleground over whether the elderly should be asked to agree to arbitration, signing away their legal rights to a trial, according to a published report.
The AARP and the National Senior Citizens Law Center have joined a 78-year-old woman in a legal challenge of a growing trend in Pennsylvania nursing homes of asking would-be residents to agree to binding arbitration for any disputes, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported in Sunday editions.
Pennsylvania has the highest number of nursing home residents outside of Florida.
AARP against practice
"Our position is consistent. We oppose arbitration agreements for nursing home residents," said Dorothy Siemon, an attorney for AARP in Washington, D.C. "But it's happening more and more. We're hearing about nursing homes trying to impose these agreements all the time to avoid potential liability if they do anything wrong."
In the Pennsylvania case, Hermoine Bruno, 78, tried to sue Beverly Healthcare Center in Oakmont, claiming she was injured by a worker at the nursing home, where she was recovering from hip replacement surgery.
Her lawsuit was dismissed in January by an Allegheny County judge because she signed a contract stating that any complaints against the nursing home would go through an arbitrator.
Bruno, who is now living with her daughter in Maryland, said she does not remember signing an arbitration agreement. Her attorney, Philip Fabiano, has appealed to the state Superior Court.
"You can't find a more vulnerable group of people, other than maybe children, than nursing home patients," Fabiano said. "They are asked to sign these documents, and we really have no idea about how many people have been affected by the agreements."
In court documents, Beverly Healthcare denied any wrongdoing. The Arkansas-based company has 372 nursing homes in 24 states. About half of Beverly Healthcare's residents sign arbitration agreements, company officials said.
Critics, however, argue that nursing home residents are a special class of consumers because they often are frail, depressed, in pain, confused and in no position to decide weighty legal issues.
Bruno claims she was in pain from her surgery and was given a large stack of papers to sign to get a bed at the home.
"I signed everything. I had no idea I was signing away all my rights," Bruno said.
The nursing home's attorneys argued that no laws protect people who are competent but "merely weak" and who do not read what they sign.
In court motions, nursing home officials have said that the arbitration agreement clearly stated that Bruno would be waiving "her constitutional right to have any claim decided in a court of law before a judge or jury, as well as any appeal from a decision or award of damages."
Trials cane be avoided
Nursing home executives claim nonbinding arbitration spares residents lengthy trials, and in some cases, is more successful.
"It is a quicker, less expensive and more fair way to resolves disputes," Beverly Healthcare spokesman Blair Jackson said in a written statement.
Asking residents to agree to binding arbitration has been found unconstitutional in some states, including Tennessee and Arkansas. In California, the Legislature is considering a ban of some arbitration agreements.
But other states, such as Texas and Indiana, have ruled against seniors who claimed they didn't understand the agreements.
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